Monkshood
by MalicerStriker
Summary: Alice develops a little obsession with Bella Swan, the social pariah with an unreadable future and violent mind. AU. Supernatural horror elements.
1. Maybe a Mystery

**1\. Maybe a Mystery**

Alice Cullen was transfixed.

She was surrounded by hundreds of American teenagers, filling the cafeteria with living noise and movement. But her hyper-tuned senses cut through all the matter, to the quietest corner of the room, and the girl who sat alone.

Her own name was being spoken close-by, but Alice pushed the information aside, her mind absorbed.

Pain flared through her ear, and the spell was broken. Alice's head snapped around, searching for the culprit. Only her brother Edward and sister Rosalie sat at the table with her. Rose was busy admiring her own manicure.

Alice's eyes narrowed on her brother. "Did you just flick my ear?"

"It's rude to stare at people," he said.

"Don't do that," Alice said as she rubbed the sting out of her ear. "And I'm not imagining it, Edward. There's something really… _wrong_ about that girl."

That girl. Hers was one of the few faces turned away from them in a sea of prying eyes.

The Cullen siblings had only been at this school half a day and Alice was sick of the stares already. A town this small, it would take months for the student body to lose interest in her family.

Edward bullied his bagel around on his tray with a plastic fork.

For appearances sake, Alice plucked an apple from her own lunch tray and made a show of rubbing the shine off on her designer jeans. She glanced at the girl again, who didn't seem to be doing much eating either. She had pulled her roast beef sandwich apart, picking the meat out to nibble on and leaving the rest untouched.

"Just humour me," Alice said. "I know you, Edward, you're bored already. It'll be something to do at least. Keep your mind off of, well, _this_. High school. Again."

He drummed his fingers along the edge of the table, then sighed and leaned back in his seat. "It's all just so soul-destroying isn't it? Fine, tell me, what is it about this girl?"

The girl sat with her back to the corner of the room, her thin shoulders curled inwards, dark hair curtaining off her face. She was bundled up in thick layers and a scarf—not exactly unusual in Washington—but the cafeteria was well heated and most other students had taken their coats and outerwear off before sitting down.

She watched as the girl lifted another piece of meat to her lips and chewed softly.

Alice shivered. "I had English with her, first period. I tried to get a glimpse of her future. I'm not sure why—bored, I guess. And she just seemed so ... I didn't mean to ..."

Edward's brow furrowed. "Alice, what happened?"

"I don't know," she said. "It was barely comprehensible. Like my visions were being torn apart. I can tell you it was bad though. It was really bad, Edward."

Edward started, "That sounds—"

"I know, okay? But I swear I wasn't imagining it. There's something wrong with her." The apple Alice had been rolling against her thigh had turned bruised and squishy. She dropped it onto her tray.

"Obviously," Rosalie said, and Alice startled. She didn't think Rose had even been following their conversation.

"I mean, look at her," Rosalie continued. "_Everything_ is wrong with her. My god, that jacket …"

"That's not exactly what I—" Alice paused, taking in the girl's old, suede Sherpa jacket once more. "Okay, yeah, it's not great."

Edward groaned.

"Whatever," Rosalie said, rising fluidly from her chair. "Bored now."

She picked up her tray and walked off like the sticky linoleum floor was a fashion runway, drawing most of the stares away with her.

Alice tried not to be too bitter about that.

The 'younger' siblings turned back to one another.

"Well, have you tried again, searching her future?" Edward said. "Just so we're sure it wasn't a once off?"

Alice shook her head. "No. And I don't really want to. I've still got a headache from the first time."

She could tell he was brushing against her thoughts, reliving the experience with her. She helped him, going over the visions again in as much detail as she could. The images were confused, slides of silence interrupted by slashes of violent noise.

Purple flowers—Stairs descending into a concrete room—Glass falling like rain—Laughter around a dining table—The door of a police cruiser slamming shut—Blood on bitumen—Wood splintering—Smoke and embers, rising into a night sky.

Then the rest dissolved into mess.

Edwards forehead was creased. "You're right, you're not imagining it. I'm going to take a look myself. If I experience the same difficulties you did, we'll know we've got something real."

"Edward, I don't think that's a good idea," Alice said.

He was already gone, his eyes focussing on some middle distance as his mind reached across the cafeteria. Alice saw it. She saw the girl stiffen in her seat. Her head lifted, started to turn towards them—

Edward gasped, snatching Alice's attention back to him. His eyes were squeezed shut, hands balled into fists on the tabletop, knuckles white.

Alice lay her hand on his forearm. "Brother?"

"I only brushed against the edge of her mind," he said. "I —I don't know what that was. You're right. Something's wrong with her."

Alice went to look for the girl again, but couldn't find her at the table. She scanned the cafeteria, caught a glimpse of her tan jacket, dark hair whipping behind her as she walked out.

Alice stared after her.

"What did you see?" she said, turning slowly back to her brother.

"Not the mind of your average high school girl, that's for sure," Edward said. "It's hard to explain, Al. It was like, I don't know, I got chased off by something."

"Something ... chased you?"

"Out of her head, yes," he said. "I'll catch Emmett before next period, find out if he's had any run ins with this girl. School this small, who knows? We may even have another class with her."

"And if we do?" Alice asked.

"We introduce ourselves."

* * *

Alice dumped her book bag into her locker. She had been using her ability to keep track of Edward over the last period. For a moment, skimming his future, she'd felt her visions split and tear again. A few minutes later it cleared up.

She'd been restless all through Social Studies after that, and Mr Jefferson had called her out on it. She'd appeased him by claiming it was just nerves, her first day in a new school after all. She'd do better.

He'd given her a pass, albeit begrudgingly, and had watched her closely for the rest of class. Too closely. He had watery little eyes.

She heard a boy stop in the hall behind her. His heart-rate spiked as he built up the courage to speak.

The thirst, always there, began burning its way up Alice's throat. She shoved it back down, slammed her locker, and turned to face him.

"Hey," she said, forcing a smile. "Tyler, right?"

His smile was as genuine as it was relieved.

"Yeah-yeah. I was, uh, two seats behind you. I wanted to say, sorry about Jefferson. I guess no one warned you."

"Not a problem," Alice said.

He nodded, kept glancing down at his shoes. "So, what's your next class? I could show you the way?"

Her family always thoroughly scouted out a town before relocating. The Cullens had lived here in Forks once before, several decades ago, before Alice had joined them. A lot can change in that time though. Alice and Edward had memorised Forks' entire layout weeks ago, including the school.

Even if that hadn't been the case, she was confident she could have found her way to the large gymnasium across campus.

"I'm okay," she told him. "Thanks for the offer though."

He tried to hide his disappointment. "Oh, sure. No worries. See you in class tomorrow then?"

Alice smiled. "Sure."

He glanced back only a few times as he walked off.

"New friend?" Edward said from next to her.

"Sneaky today, aren't you? That was Tyler from Social Studies."

"Tyler from Social Studies… Let him down gently?"

She grunted. "How about you?"

He grinned, impossibly sharp teeth glinting under the fluorescent lights. "Oh, you know. Five so far."

"Five?" she said, eyes widening. "You've already had to turn down five girls?"

"Four girls," he corrected. "One boy. He approached me in Government. Very confident."

"And all I've gotten is _Tyler from Sosh_." She resisted the urge to stamp her foot.

Edward always won. Rose was too intimidating, Emmett too frightening, and Alice was just too weird.

"There, there, Little Freak," Edward soothed. He offered his elbow. "Escort you to gym?"

She grumbled. "Fine."

It had started raining, and they pulled their hoods up as they stepped out of the main building.

"She was in biology," Edward said as they crossed the paved courtyard. "Your girl."

"I know," Alice said. "I saw your future go all squiggly for a few minutes. I wasn't sure if I should ditch class to come check on you. What happened?"

"I said hello. She was … quite rude." He frowned at that. "I did learn some things though. She doesn't appear to know what we are, so that's good. And she _seems_ completely human. She's a sickly-looking thing, and smells a little odd, but that's about it. Oh, and her name's Isabella Swan. I snuck a peek at the teacher's roll."

"What, she didn't introduce herself?" Alice asked.

"No. Like I said, quite rude." Edward paused. "Wait … 'squiggly'?"

Alice huffed. "Well, we haven't exactly established a scientific vernacular for this stuff."

"Still," Edward said.

They glided through the stream of students, all eager to get to their last classes of the day. Freedom was in sight. Edward hummed to himself.

"What's got you so chipper?"

"Oh, just that you were right," he said. "This _is_ less boring than our regular passes through high school."

Alice snorted. "Don't sound so pleased about it. This girl is starting to wig me out. I don't like being blinded. She could be a danger to us."

"I know. Isn't it grand?"

"Okay, we need to get you a girlfriend, Eddie. Something to keep you occupied." Alice's thoughts drifted to Alaska, and a certain strawberry blonde.

Edward cuffed the back of her head, knocking her hood forward over her eyes.

"Tanya's not the only blonde in Alaska you know," he said.

Thoughts of Jasper snagged in her mind.

"You're not alone in missing him," Edward said. "Emmett's gotten so desperate he was begging _Esme_ for a sparring match last week."

"She'd crush him," Alice said. "Anyway, Jazz and I both need the space right now. And I think Alaska's good for him. The Denalis are less … stringent. He wasn't handling cold-turkey very well. Their methods should ease him through it a little better, and I know the girls would never let him actually kill somebody."

The gym was ahead of them. Edward bumped his shoulder against hers and broke off. It was too early for him to start ditching classes. He'd just have to suffer through last period with the rest of them.

Alice was already thinking about how they would bring up the Swan girl with Carlisle and Esme when they got home. This would probably warrant a family meeting.

Dark hair caught her eye as someone reached for the handle of the gym door just ahead of her. A cloying, sweet scent filled her nostrils. Like flowers, just beginning to decompose.

"Hi," Alice said. The girl froze, hand still on the handle, and turned slowly. "You're Isabella Swan, right?"

The girl glanced around, as if she thought Alice might be speaking to someone else, even though she'd addressed her by name.

"Hey," she finally said.

"I wanted to apologise on someone's behalf," Alice said. "I think my brother might have gotten off on the wrong foot with you in your biology class today. He has that effect on people. My name's Alice, by the way."

Isabella had no hood, and the rain had darkened her hair to black, sticking in strands to her forehead. She stared at Alice for a few seconds before glancing around again. "I have to go. In here. To gym."

Alice stepped forward. "Cool, me too. My siblings and I are new in town. Just transferred."

"I know," Isabella said. "Your dad's the new doctor."

Alice beamed. "That's right."

"Well, uh, see you. In class."

"Sure," Alice chirped.

The girl grimaced, then, after a beat, realised she was still blocking the door. Her pale face flushed pink and she tried to pull the handle but the door didn't budge. She pushed instead and hurried inside when it opened.

Alice was still grinning when she followed after her. The interaction had managed to dissolve most of the 'creepy' vibes she had been getting from her. The girl was still a mystery. Maybe a threat. Definitely a dork.


	2. A Very Nice Town

**2\. A Very Nice Town**

Gym had been uneventful. Coach Clapp spent most of the class trying to re-ingrain the importance of physical education into the minds of two dozen lethargic teenagers, all of them just waiting for the last bell of the day.

Alice had tuned him out. She'd stood there toying with the hem of the gym shirt she'd been given. The smallest they'd had and still too big—it had fallen to her thighs before she'd tied a knot in the waist. The shorts weren't any better. She was considering starting a petition for a redesign. She'd come up with the new look of course. The unsightly, lemon-yellow had to go.

She'd noticed that the Swan girl had made some alterations of her own already. She'd ditched the shorts for a pair of tracksuit pants and wore a high-necked, long-sleeved shirt beneath the yellow gym t-shirt.

Without her jacket on, Alice understood what Edward had meant when he described the girl as sickly. She was still taller than Alice by nearly a head, but her pale face held hollows and shadows. She was snake-hipped, and frail shouldered. Her limbs were long and kindling thin.

When Coach Clapp announced they would be ending the class with a game of dodgeball, Isabella eyed the foam ball in his hands warily. Alice wouldn't be surprised if a decent hit from it could punch a hole straight through her.

She didn't need to wait long to find out. She watched helplessly from the opposite side of the court as the poor girl was almost knocked off her feet by a throw from a taller blonde. The blonde giggled as she low-fived a pretty brunette, and Isabella staggered over to the bleachers to sit out the rest of the match. No one would be picking her to bring back in should they score a lucky catch.

Alice didn't spot her again after that. The final bell pealed, and the students began dispersing into the locker rooms, but Isabella wasn't among the crowd.

_Perhaps_ _the_ _Coach_ _dismissed_ _her_ _early?_

"Still thinking about your mystery girl?" Edward was leaning against the side of the building when she stepped out.

He pushed off the wall and they began the trek back towards the car park. The rain had stopped, for now, and Alice weaved between puddles in a vain attempt to keep her shoes dry. The damp soaked through everything here eventually.

"She was in Gym," Alice said.

"Oh? Learn anything new?"

"She doesn't seem to be well liked by the other students—"

Edward interrupted, "Can't imagine why."

" —And," Alice continued, ignoring him, "she's not very good at dodgeball."

"Not exactly surprising either. She's the human incarnation of a willow branch."

Alice smacked his arm and he laughed.

"I spoke with her, actually," Alice said. "Before class started. She wasn't as rude as you claim—just sort of reserved. She knows who we are, you know? That Carlisle works at the hospital."

"I suppose with a town this small, even the pariahs are privy to the gossip," he said.

Rosalie and Emmett were already at the Volvo, leaning against the hood and staring nauseatingly into one another's eyes. Edward shooed them off of his car, and went around to unlock the doors. Alice was about to climb into the passenger seat when the breeze shifted and she caught the scent of dying flowers for the second time that afternoon.

Isabella Swan sat on a half-rotted park table on the green just off the car park, her feet dangling and her windblown hair flying about her face. She was looking down, peeling small strips of old paint from the wood.

Alice heard Edward call out her name, but she was already halfway across the lot. She was outside of the girl's peripheries, and her feet made no sound on the loose gravel, but when she got within a few feet of her, Isabella's shoulders stiffened and her head snapped around.

_Curiouser and curiouser. _

She didn't say anything, but Alice could see the question on her face.

"Hi," said Alice.

The girl's eyes flicked towards the entrance of the car park, looking for something or someone. "Hey," she said.

"We didn't really get a chance to talk again in Gym," Alice said. "How are you doing? I saw you get hit."

She sniffed. "I'm fine. I saw you too. Not getting hit, I mean. You did well. I thought Mike Newton was going to have an aneurysm when you took him down in front of Lauren and Jess."

Alice laughed. "Yeah, well, he wasn't all that. You disappeared pretty quickly. Did Coach Clapp let you leave early?"

She nodded absently, her eyes drifting past Alice. "I think your, uh, siblings are waiting on you."

Alice didn't need to look over her shoulder to know the others' eyes would be burning holes in the back of her head.

She hummed. "They'll survive. Hey, did you need a ride?"

"Someone's picking me up," she said.

"Okay," Alice said. "Well, offer stands, if you ever do."

Isabella hopped down off the table and bench, turning fully face her. Their height difference was suddenly much more apparent to Alice.

"Why are you talking to me?"

Alice faltered. She glanced down at her nine-hundred dollar sneakers, her eyebrows scrunching together. "I don't know. I'm new here. I don't know anyone."

"I'm nobody. Ask anybody."

"Sorry, Isabella," Alice said. "I just thought maybe we could hang out or something."

Isabella took a step back, and a tension left Alice that she hadn't even realised was there. The girl picked her backpack up off the bench, swinging one strap over her shoulder.

There was a bite of frustration to her voice when she spoke. "Don't worry about it. I have to go."

Tires crunched on gravel as a vehicle pulled up. Alice blinked when she saw it was a police cruiser.

The girl paused halfway to the car and glanced back over her shoulder. "And it's Bella, by the way."

She climbed into the passenger seat of the cruiser, and slammed the door shut behind her.

Alice was about to walk back to her siblings when she heard the driver side door open. A man stepped out and rested his elbows on the roof of the cruiser to appraise her.

He had the same dark eyes and hair as Bella, but he was beginning to go salt-and-pepper around the temples. He was one of the rare sorts that could still pull off a moustache. His resemblance to Bella continued in his figure, which couldn't quite fill out his police uniform. He wasn't sickly though, like she appeared, more like he was used to missing a few regular meals. His face was drawn, but his eyes were alert.

"How are we today?" he said. His voice was coarse and cautious, with a forced sort of friendliness. "You'd be one of Doctor Cullen's girls then, am I right?"

"Yes, sir," she said. "My name's Alice."

The man nodded. "Chief Swan. I appreciate you and your folks uprooting yourselves to move down here. Your dad's real good people. We're lucky to have him."

"Thank you, sir," Alice said.

"I understand it might be difficult for you kids, starting up again, new town, new school. Try to stay out of trouble though, am I clear?"

Alice's eyes darted to Bella and then back. She was still in her seat, staring hard at the dashboard in front of her.

"Yes, sir. Very clear," Alice said. "Forks is a very nice town. We're all happy to have moved here."

His eyes swept over the rest of her siblings, still waiting by the Volvo. "I might see you kids again real soon. Gonna be good hunting this week, and Bells can do wonders with a cut of venison. Was thinking of swinging by to drop some off for your mum and dad." His grin didn't quite reach his eyes. "Our way of saying welcome."

"Thank you, sir. I'm sure Carlisle and Esme would love that."

He looked her up and down once more before nodding again and ducking back inside his car. Bella still didn't look up when he started the cruiser. They pulled out of the car park, onto the highway, and were gone.

"So, her dad's the Chief of Police," Edward said when she'd re-joined them and they'd piled into the Volvo.

"I don't like him," Alice said. "He was giving me the serious wiggins."

"Seemed nice enough to me," Emmett muttered from the back seat. "Bringing us deer and all."

"His mind was interesting," Edward said, ignoring their brother. "Not nearly as … _aggressive_ a reaction as with his daughter, but there was definitely something there trying to keep me out. I only caught the tone of his thoughts. Sorry to say, but I don't think he likes you too much either, Alice. Or, at least, he doesn't like you hanging around his daughter."

"Alright," Alice said. "So, creepy _and_ possessive."

Edward shot her a lopsided grin. "A very nice town indeed."


	3. What to Do About Bella Swan

**3\. What to Do About Bella Swan**

"So," Carlisle said. "First day of school and we've already called a family meeting."

Esme sat down beside him, the last to take her place at the large dining table the Cullens only ever used for such occasions. She'd been finishing up the final details for the house plans in her study. They needed to knock out a wall in Alice's bedroom upstairs and convert half of it into a closet to fit all her clothes. They'd also planned out an extension onto the garage—most of Rosalie and Edward's cars were still gathering dust at a storage facility in Seattle.

Esme _tsk_ed. "You kids just can't stay out of trouble, can you?"

Rosalie rocked onto the back legs of her chair, her attention on her phone more than the rest of the room. "It comes easier for some than for others."

Alice was at the head of the table, seeing as she'd had the honour of calling this meeting, and she splayed her fingers out on the mahogany before her. Edward sat directly to her left. Esme and Carlisle further down in the middle, and Rosalie and Emmett opposite them.

"Sorry for dragging you all together this evening," Alice said. "I know you're still getting settled into work, Carlisle, and the rest of you probably had plans. But something came up at the high school that Edward and I believed necessitated a discussion."

"Come on," Emmett said, "are we really gonna panic over one weird human?"

Carlisle perked up. He and Esme were the only ones fully unaware of the situation.

"To be honest," Edward said, "I'm not entirely certain she is human. She appears to be, but there are a range of … _aberrations_ that I believe we should address."

"Fine," Rosalie said, clicking her phone off and sliding it into her back pocket. "Let's get this over with."

"Perhaps you should take us through this from the start," Carlisle said. "Alice?"

Alice filled her lungs. "Okay. So, I first noticed this girl, Isabella Swan, in my first period English class. I don't really know why. There was something about her … I didn't even mean to, I don't think, but I tried to see her future."

Carlisle and Esme were following along, and Edward gave her a nod of encouragement. Rosalie looked bored. Emmett looked like he was trying _not_ to look bored.

"Anyway," Alice continued. "What I saw didn't make a lot of sense. It was like … her future was tearing holes out of itself. Or more like, I was seeing two entirely different futures and they were tearing holes out of each other. Like they couldn't actually exist simultaneously but were trying to force themselves to fit together."

"She showed it to me," Edward inserted. "It was incomprehensible."

"I pointed her out to Edward at lunch," Alice said. "He decided he should try his ability on her too, and, well, he can tell you just how that went."

"Painfully," Edward said, wincing at the memory. "It felt like something inside her mind attacked me."

"Attacked you?" Carlisle leaned forward. "Were you injured in any way?"

"No," Edward said. He shifted in his seat. "When I felt it, I retreated from her mind quickly. I didn't actually pick up on a 'voice', but the intent was clear. I wasn't welcome inside her head."

There was silence in the dining room for a few moments as the others digested this. Even Rosalie seemed to have sobered.

"Well," Carlisle said, steepling his fingers beneath his chin. "I understand why you thought this should be brought to the attention of the whole family."

"There's more," Alice said. "I think Bella knew that it was Edward who had done something. Before he got out of her head, I saw her visibly react. She could be aware of us."

Edward hummed. "Aware of us, maybe, but I don't believe she knows what we are. Alice and I had classes with her after lunch too. I didn't manage to get much out of her—Alice spoke with her more—but I think she might be ill. She has the strangest scent."

"Like dying flowers," Alice said. "Does that mean anything to you, Carlisle?"

He shook his head, slowly. "No, nothing comes to mind. It's not uncommon for an illness to affect a person's scent. I'd need more to go on."

"What did she say to you, Alice?" Esme said. "When you spoke."

"Oh," Alice said, running her tongue over her lower lip. "Not much, really."

Emmett guffawed. "Shot her down flat. Doesn't that put you back at zero?"

"No," Alice said, eyes widening. "That's not what—listen, we are not counting that! And she just … needs to come around to the idea of friends."

"Are you sure you should be getting friendly?" Rosalie asked. "You heard Edward—she attacked him. She could be a danger to us."

"It certainly sounds like she's worth keeping an eye on," Carlisle said. "But nothing you've told us makes me believe she's any immediate threat."

Edward was shaking his head. "Carlisle, I'm not so sure. What I felt inside her head … I can't overstate it. I don't like us being blind to her—Alice being blind to her."

Alice's jaw dropped. "Edward, her father's the Police Chief, what exactly do you suggest we do?"

Carlisle raised his eyebrows.

"Speaking of which," Alice said, looking to Carlisle and Esme. "I think you should be prepared for the Chief to drop by sometime. He said he wanted to give us a proper welcome to Forks."

"Well," Esme said, "that sounds nice. Or ominous. I'll have to prepare a platter."

"I have a theory," Carlisle declared.

"Here we go," said Rose.

The siblings snickered and Carlisle looked wounded. Esme rubbed his arm, suppressing a smile of her own.

"Go on, Dear," Esme said. "Ignore them. You know we enjoy your theories."

Carlisle nodded to himself, sitting a little straighter. "It's possible that this girl has an innate defensive ability—Similar to how we believe Edward may have been sensitive to the thoughts of others even as a human. Except, this girl, may be some kind of psychic … _scrambler_."

"That," Edward said, "might not be so farfetched. I mean, we are definitely not going to call it a '_psychic scrambler_', but the theory itself isn't bad. If it's an inherited trait that would explain why the Chief's mind was also quite resistant to me."

Rosalie smacked her palm on the tabletop. "Excellent. If worst comes to worst, we can just hand the girl over to the Volturi. They've been ramping up their expansion these last few decades, and they're always looking for potential talent."

"It _would_ put us in their good graces," Edward mused. "However, they may come looking for her regardless. As I understand it, there are members of the Guard capable of tracking such people. That could be a problem in and of itself. We don't need the Volturi snooping around Forks if we could prevent it, especially not with the Quileutes down the road. We still don't know if all the wolves are really gone."

"Well," Rose said, "there are always simpler methods."

Alice surged up out of her seat, fists balled at her sides. "Are we seriously discussing this! Just _disappearing _some girl. I know you've thought differently in the past, Edward, but I was under the impression that in this family we don't murder innocent people because of what _might_ happen!"

"We have no idea what she is, Alice—If she's innocent or not," Edward said, getting to his feet as well, albeit slower. "And whatever I've done in the past, I live with it. I don't try to justify it."

"Yeah," Rosalie said, "keep telling yourself that, Eddie."

Edward huffed. "You're certainly one to talk."

She rolled her eyes. "I did what I did to those men because I _wanted _to. Because I liked it and because they deserved it. I'm not ashamed of that. You shouldn't be either, Brother." Rosalie straightened up in her seat and turned on Alice next. "And _you_. I don't know where you think you're getting off—you've got more blood on your hands than the rest of this table combined."

Alice clamped down on the growl that climbed her throat. She thought she saw a flash of regret pass over Rosalie's face.

"The way I see it," Rosalie said, after a pause, "this Swan girl is either a direct threat, or a liability."

Edward sighed. "I'm sorry, but I have to agree. Whatever she is, she's dangerous, Alice, and we don't take risks. That's the rule."

An exasperated breath escaped Alice, and she slumped back into her seat. "We—we could just leave. You've done it before, I know."

"Never like this," Rosalie said. "I like this town—we can almost be normal here. I don't want to uproot our whole lives again."

Emmett had been watching Rosalie carefully, but his eyes slid over to Alice. "We need to protect the family, Al."

Alice looked from face to face around the table, all of them sincere in their own ways. For the first time in the fifty years she'd called the Cullens her family, she didn't find the support she was looking for. Esme and Carlisle were the unspoken leaders, but they weren't the sort to draw hard lines. They might not take part in the act, but they wouldn't stand against the others either. Emmett would go along with whatever Rose decided, and Rose always stuck to her convictions. Maybe Edward would brood and self-loath over it all later, but for now he had his tunnel vision on.

Suddenly Jasper's absence was a crushing weight. She knew he'd have supported her on this if he was here. He always did. She needed someone right now.

She saw how it would happen. It wouldn't be right away. They'd take their time to plan out every detail. Construct careful alibies. Weave a perfectly plausible story. The depressed teenager, antisocial, bullied by the other students. Would it really surprise anyone if she just disappeared one night and never came back?

And then she saw something else.

A pale hand, sliding a purple flower behind her ear—Thin fingers stroking down the curve of her jaw—Full lips curving into a soft, half-smile—Dark eyes, deep enough to swallow her whole—They're on the couch in her bedroom upstairs, rich brown hair, haloing out on the pillow, framing a heart-shaped face.

Alice's future was exploding around her. Tearing itself apart. She'd gone blind and she couldn't bring herself to care.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, "this is no longer a discussion. Bella's off limits."

Edward's face had softened.

_Whatever you saw, Brother, don't share it with the others. That vision was mine._

He nodded slowly, and sunk back into his seat.

Rosalie's eyes bulged. "What? Just like that—because you say so? Alice, you're the one who wanted a meeting in the first place. Just because things aren't going your way —"

"Rose, I mean it," Alice said. "If she does become a problem, I'll take care of it personally. I promise."

Rosalie looked like she might try to argue further, but Emmett gently laid one of his big hands over hers, and after sharing a look with him she closed her mouth and rocked back in her chair again, fuming silently.

"Okay," Carlisle finally said. "We'll keep an eye on the situation, but for now I don't think any further action is required. Thank you for bringing the matter to everyone's attention, Alice. Edward."

With that, they left their seats and began filtering out of the dining room. Esme to return to her study, Rosalie and Emmett to their room. Alice was about to go shut herself up in her own bedroom for the night when Edward caught her at the foot of the stairs.

"I won't say anything," he said, speaking low enough that they wouldn't be overheard. "About your vision, I mean. You should know that the others already suspect something of the sort, though."

"Thank you, Edward," Alice said.

He dipped his head. "I am sorry," he said. "About before. You understand why I said what I did, though? And Rosalie?"

Alice sighed. "Honestly, Edward, I'm having trouble processing anything right now."

"Al," he said, and he was running his fingers through his hair, not meeting her eye, "did you mean what you said? About handling it yourself?"

She nodded slowly. "I think so."

"You know why I don't approve." He paused. "But still, if it does come to that, you can always count on Carlisle to help."

Alice gave him one last smile of acknowledgment and went upstairs. She couldn't remember ever being this mentally exhausted. She didn't know what it felt like to sleep, but she imagined the need for it was something like this. She sprawled out on her couch, turned her face to the pillow and breathed deeply. In her mind she conjured the sweet scent of dying flowers, and found comfort in a memory yet to be.


	4. Nibbles

**4\. Nibbles**

Bella walked into English, and some of the tension that had settled over Alice finally lifted. Her shoulders relaxed and she breathed, inhaling that same peculiar scent that she had been trying to catch traces of all morning.

Alice frowned. Was she imagining it, or were the malign undertones of the girl's scent stronger than yesterday?

She observed Bella as she came down the aisle between the tables. She seemed to be curled in on herself a little more. Her face was gaunter, the bruises under her eyes more pronounced. Alice even thought she perceived a slight shake in the girl's legs with every step.

There was more she noticed now though too—things she couldn't believe she'd overlooked yesterday. Bella's features found compliment in each other through contradiction. Like how strong her cheekbones were, almost too much so for the contour of her jaw. How large her eyes were, for the delicate line of her nose. The way her lower lip was a little fuller than the top, giving her a permanent pout.

She wore the same suede, Sherpa jacket as yesterday. An old thing, worn at the sleeves, the wool lining thinning out around the cuffs and collar. There was a rip in the knee of her jeans, and her boots had dried mud caked around the outsole.

Alice didn't mind the grungy aesthetic so much—after all, she had spent the eighties here in the Pacific Northwest—but already she'd sketched out half a dozen new outfits in her mind that she knew would flatter Bella far better.

Bella didn't look down at Alice when she passed, just walked to the back, taking her seat at the table she shared with an acne scarred boy. Alice tried to catch her eye throughout the class, but Bella stayed hunched over her text book, and never looked up except to check the board.

When the shrill, little bell rang, signalling the end of first period, Alice had planned to try and strike up a conversation in the hall, but Bella had slipped away before she could work up the nerve. Alice weighed her options, but decided chasing after her down the halls probably wasn't the wisest course of action.

Her next few classes dragged on without end, with nothing to hold her interest or distract her. Nothing to keep her thoughts from circling around and around inside her head like a train.

When she was finally released, she beelined for the cafeteria, and joined Edward in the queue where he already carried a tray for her.

He raised his eyebrows at her, tilted his head in the direction she'd come from. The silent question was easy enough to decode.

_She didn't even look at me,_ Alice thought. _I'm losing my mind here, Edward. I can't plan out anything ahead with her. My visions just get torn to ribbons. _

His eyes flicked up to the corner of the ceiling and he raised his shoulders in a shrug.

_How could it possibly be any worse? _Alice thought. _This morning it took me four hours to decide on an outfit. I had to go to Esme for help. She was acting all coy about it, pretending nothing was out of the ordinary. It was obnoxious. _

He flashed her a lopsided grin, without an ounce of sympathy. Over the years he had suffered worse than any of them under Esme's preening—whether it was well-meaning or not.

They finished piling food onto their trays, all of it ultimately destined for the trash. Alice searched the cafeteria with her eyes but Bella still hadn't arrived. They paid and she followed along after Edward over to the table where their siblings were already seated.

She spent her lunch break watching the door, trying to foresee when Bella would walk through it, but the maelstrom in her head wouldn't straighten itself out.

_How did people put up with this? This not knowing? _

"Alice," Edward said. "Can you give it a rest for just a few minutes, please? You're starting to give me a headache."

"Why don't you go dunk your head in someone else's thoughts then," Alice said. "Rosalie's should be shallow enough for you."

Rosalie flashed her teeth, and it would have almost been a smile if it weren't so predatory. "You know I love it when you're feisty, but don't start with me today. I'm still annoyed with you."

Alice grumbled and lay her temple down on the cool metal of the cafeteria table—about the same temperature as her own skin. She shut her eyes and tried to clear her mind.

It wasn't until a few minutes before the end of lunch that Bella Swan decided to bless the rest of the student body with her presence. She bypassed the vacant lunch line and went straight to her table on the other side of the room without even picking up a tray.

Alice wanted to go over to her, but she had no idea what she would say, and Bella's posture was entirely closed off.

When lunch ended, Edward leaned in. "I share a table with her in Biology. I could try and talk to her again, if you like?"

"Because you told me that went so well last time." Alice shook her head. "Forget it, Edward. Just … keep an eye on her for me. But not, you know, in a creepy, stalkerish way."

"Sorry, Al," Edward said, rising out of his seat. "That's the only way I know how."

She sighed and he grinned, sauntering off towards class. Alice stood up too, taking her tray and dumping its contents into the bin on her way out the door. She only had to soldier through the next period of Social Studies and then she'd see her little obsession again in Gym.

Maybe in that time she'd even build up the courage to say something.

* * *

Coach Clapp was going to have them playing volleyball today. They had been due to start almost four minutes ago, but most of the class was still lingering in the locker rooms, and Bella, once again, was yet to even show up.

Alice had already changed into her Gym gear, but she stayed in the locker room, sitting cross-legged on one of the benches and pretending to be absorbed by her phone. She did her best to filter out the conversations around her, as the other girls chatted and gossiped, sharing plans for the coming weekend. They didn't try to include her, and for that Alice was grateful.

She heard the creaking door to the gym open. The weather had picked up outside, and as the wind rushed in, Bella's scent made its way through the building to her.

Alice put her phone away and stood up, wringing her hands and wishing, for the thousandth time that day, if only she could rely on her powers again.

She'd been spoilt, she realised.

When Bella trudged in, she did so with her head down, her hands stuffed into the slash pockets of her jacket.

Alice stepped forward, already fumbling the words she'd so meticulously rehearsed in her head.

Just like the previous day, as soon as Alice entered the bubble of space Bella seemed to keep around herself, the girl sensed her. The reaction it provoked, however, was far more severe.

Bella recoiled from her, staggering into the line of lockers against the wall.

"Sorry—sorry," Alice said quickly, "I didn't mean to startle you. I just wanted to—"

"What the hell is your problem?" Bella shouted, and then immediately shrunk back from her own outburst. She squeezed her eyes shut, a hand going to her throat.

They had drawn the attention of a few of the other girls, who's chatter had petered out.

Alice could hear Bella's heart, too rapid, thudding beneath her breast like a hammer against a pillow. She noted, grimly, that Bella was looking even worse now than she had only a few hours ago. Her hair was lank, and a thin sheen of sweat coated her pale skin.

"I'm sorry," Alice said.

"J—just, leave me alone," Bella said, though it was barely a whisper, spoken more to herself. She pushed herself off the lockers, went to move past Alice, but froze. Something dripped down onto the floor at her feet.

Alice looked down and saw a drop of blood. She traced it back up to Bella's nose, as another drop ran down over the girl's top lip. The scent of dying flowers was suddenly suffocating and Alice took an involuntary step back.

Bella's eyes were wide with animal panic. She threw a hand over her mouth and nose, and half ran, half stumbled, towards the shower stalls.

The brunette from yesterday—Jessica, Alice thought—whistled after her. "Way to go, Nibbles!"

There was some scattered laughter, and Jessica and the other girls filed out of the locker room.

Alice was rooted to the spot. The rational part of her mind wanted to run after Bella, make sure she was okay, but the smell of her blood had triggered something inside of her. Her muscles should have coiled, and her mouth should have flooded with venom. She should have been urged towards a frenzy—but instead her instincts were screaming for her to bolt in the other direction.

She locked her body down—though she trembled with the effort to keep still—and cut off her breathing. It took a few minutes, but as soon as she felt calm enough to move, she darted out of the now empty locker room and joined the rest of the class.

She knew she wouldn't be able to keep this from Edward, but didn't know how he and the others would react when they found out. It was definitely another notch in the 'not human' column for Bella. Would her vision still be enough to keep Edward on her side? A few loose scraps torn from the tapestry of a future that would very likely never come to be?

The Coach did not appreciate his class's tardiness, and he started them on series of warm-up exercises with the sort of malice usually reserved for drill instructors.

Alice set about the tasks without enthusiasm. She could have run laps until her shoes wore through, it made no difference to her.

Bella emerged from the locker room several minutes later. Her face was clean of blood, but she couldn't wash away the smell of it so easily, and Alice had to hold her breath once more.

Bella kept her chin down as she walked around the edge of the court and over to the coach. She spoke too quietly for the other students to hear, but Alice could pick up the words without issue.

"May I be excused early, Coach? I'm feeling unwell."

"Of course, Ms Swan," he said, without hesitation. "Did you drive today? You can stop by the office and Shelly will let you use the phone to call your dad."

"Thank you, Coach, but I think I'd like to walk."

He shifted on his feet but nodded. "Okay. Go on then."

Bella left, pursued by some jeers from the other students, but Coach Clapp sharply called order back to the room. He instructed them to space out and finish off with some basic stretches.

_He has a soft spot for her,_ Alice thought, as she sank to the ground, easily grasping the toes of her outstretched leg and folding her body forward. She wondered how long this sort of thing had been going on.

"Yo, New Girl," someone whispered at her. "What are you, like, made of neoprene?"

Alice blinked, glanced around. Jessica—and the blonde girl she now recognised as Lauren Mallory—had situated themselves in the space next to her.

"Huh?"

Jessica rolled her eyes. "Never mind. Hey, so what's up with you and Nibbles anyway?"

"Excuse me?" Alice said.

"That thing before?" she said. "And we saw you, like, totally staring at her in the cafeteria too."

"Yeah," Lauren said, much louder. "What's up with that?"

Alice tried to shake the fog from her brain. "Sorry, why is any of this your business? And her name is Bella."

"Duh," Jessica said. "She's been the same since Junior High—never eats practically anything. Like, there's watching your figure, and then there's '_eat a sandwich already_'. Plus, Bella—Bells—Nibbles, you know?"

Alice blinked again. "Wow, there is nothing not atrocious about that."

Jessica readied some retort, but snapped her mouth shut when she spotted Coach Clapp heading their way.

He stood over them for a few seconds, then begrudgingly said, "Good form, Ms Cullen," and moved on.

"Nibbles totally does pot, too," Lauren said, as soon as he was out of earshot. "I saw the track marks on her arms one time."

Jessica groaned. "Lauren, you don't inject pot. You're thinking of heroin."

"Whatever," Lauren said. "She totally does it. Probably thinks she can get away with it because her dad's a cop."

"Do you even know her?" Alice said. "Have either of you ever even spoken to her?"

Lauren snorted. "No. That would totally be social bukkake."

"What the frick, Lauren!" Jessica said. "Seppuku! You're thinking of seppuku!"

"Whatever."

"Actually," Jessica said, turning back to Alice, "I used to be friends with Nibbles. Sandbox love, you know? We were tight all the way up through elementary school."

"What?" Lauren's jaw hung open. "Jesus, Jess. Keep your voice down, people could hear you."

"Hey, she used to be kinda cool," Jessica said. "Until her mum died at least. After that she got totally messed in the head."

The offhand remark took Alice by surprise. She'd never even thought—"How did it happen?"

"Morbid much?" Jessica said. "It was a car crash. It was super sad actually. The whole town got a big tragedy-boner over it."

Alice didn't know what to say. She wasn't sure how much merit she could place in the other girls' words, and her mind was drifting with too much to process.

Jessica clicked her fingers, drawing Alice's attention back.

"Hey," she said. "So, is your brother seeing anyone?"

Alice blinked. "Huh?"

"You know, the gorgeous one? With the amazing hair?"

"I, uh—" Alice faltered.

Coach Clapp called the class to attention, and Jessica straightened up and mouthed 'talk later' to Alice.

Alice felt detached from herself, barely participating in the rest of the class. She was just trying to wrap her head around everything—the events that had transpired over the last two days.

_What have you gotten yourself into, Alice?_ she thought to herself._ You stupid little__ vampire._

When she got home that night, her mind still swam with blood and revelations.


	5. Colour of Concern

**5\. Colour of Concern**

The dear's panicked kicks began to falter, and then, gradually, it went limp. Alice released it from the constriction of her arms, and the body fell to the forest floor in an undignified heap.

She ran her tongue over her teeth, dislodging a few bristles of fur and spitting them out. She would never get used to that, or the gamey aftertaste that always lingered in her mouth. She had to close her eyes and focus only on keeping the animal blood down—fighting her own body's attempts to reject it.

Finally, her conscious mind won out over her instincts, and her stomach settled. The thirst had retreated to the back of her throat, reduced to a low smoulder but never really gone.

She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, and glanced over at her sister. "Weren't you supposed to go hunting earlier, with Emmett?"

Rosalie was dabbing at the corner of her mouth with a handkerchief, entirely unperturbed by her own kill.

_She's never known better_, Alice thought, and then scolded herself. That was supposed to be a good thing.

Rosalie folded her handkerchief neatly and tucked it away. "He and Edward had other—more important—things to do. Eradicating the zombie threat to humankind, I believe."

"Oh, of course," Alice said. "Can't shirk a responsibility like that over something as trivial as sustenance."

"Hmm, speaking of responsibilities," Rosalie said, "have you made any decisions regarding your little obsession yet?"

They started running back towards the house together, finished for the evening. It had been a light hunt, and they'd likely be out here again by the end of the week. Alice was not looking forward to it—but needs must.

She stared hard ahead of her, running at a speed which turned the greenery around her to a passing blur. When she spoke, there was no trace of exertion in her voice. "Leave it alone, Rose."

She wasn't in the mood. None of the family had taken the news very well, when she'd told them of her last encounter with Bella. To make matters worse, Bella hadn't shown for school at all for the rest of the week, and Alice had found herself feeling cheated, and more irritable with each passing day.

She had thought a good hunt would assuage that, but her thoughts were still jagged things, snagging and tearing in her mind.

"You can't deny it," Rosalie said. "Not after what you experienced with her blood. She isn't human."

"We don't know that," Alice said.

In a flash Alice was pinned against a tree with her wrists trapped above her head and Rosalie's arm jammed up against her throat. She squirmed, but Rosalie was stronger than her, and Alice couldn't even release the air from her lungs to speak.

Rosalie stared at her, wide eyed. Streaks of gold were already starting to shoot through the black of her irises. "You really are blind, aren't you?" she said.

She dropped her arms and stepped back, leaving Alice to rub at her neck.

"Uh —owe?" Alice said.

"I was planning that for minutes," Rosalie said. "No way you shouldn't have seen it coming. This girl really has blinded you. Do you even realise what kind of danger that puts this family in? You're our early warning system—we rely on you."

"I know, Rose," Alice said. "I know. But it's not as bad as all that."

Rosalie opened her mouth to speak but Alice beat her to it.

"'_Not bad? Alice, in what way is this not bad_?'" she impersonated. "That's what you were going to say right?"

Rosalie crossed her arms. She started to speak, but again Alice talked over her, speaking the words a half-second before Rose could.

"'_Anyone could have guessed that . Okay quit it. Alice, that's annoying. Seriously, stop showing off! I'm an itty-bitty little brat—'_ Hey!"

Rosalie sniggered. "I can't believe I got you to say that."

"Yeah, laugh it up," Alice said. "Still proves my point. I'm not blind. I just have to concentrate more. I can't see Bella, the decisions she makes or affects. She's been affecting a lot of my decisions recently, and it makes a mess of things."

Alice watched as her sister began to pace. Her footsteps ghosting over the undergrowth, not disturbing a single twig or pebble.

"You really like her, don't you?" Rosalie said.

"It's not that," Alice said. "Not really. I've barely spoken to her. But everything I do learn about her just makes me want to know more. I guess I'm fascinated."

"Well, we should be doing some digging," Rosalie said. "Tracking her activities, looking into her history. School. Home life. Medical."

Alice shook her head, crossed her arms. "No."

"It's the smart thing to do, Al. We don't take risks, remember?"

"I'm trying to win her trust," Alice said. "We're not going to invade her privacy like that."

"She's a threat," Rosalie said. "We need to be prepared."

"For what?" Alice said. "Rose, for crying out loud, she can't even fight off a dodgeball."

"No," Rosalie said. "She's just a … a _psychic scrambler_, who can scatter your visions and chase Edward out of her mind. Oh, and her blood sent you running scared, let's not forget about that little detail."

"I didn't run," Alice said. _Not that freezing up was much better_, she thought. _Worse, probably_. "And we agreed not to call her a psychic scrambler—it's a stupid name."

"And from what you've told us," Rosalie continued, ignoring her, "you believe she can sense you sneaking up on her."

"I didn't sneak!"

"At the family meeting," Rosalie said. "When we'd decided to kill her, what did you see?"

Alice flinched. "That's personal."

Rosalie rolled her eyes. "I mean, did you see an outcome? Did we succeed?"

"You—" Alice paused. "No, I don't know. I saw you, and the others, planning it. But then I saw …"

"Exactly," Rose said. "You saw your little '_something personal_', didn't you? I'm not that vapid, Alice. I can take a shot in the dark. You saw her."

"Well … yeah."

"I'm not even going to try and pretend I understand how your powers work," Rosalie said. "But the way I'm following it, it's like this—we were planning to kill her, and then you saw the two of you … _together_. Safe to assume she survived whatever we had in mind, no? You only made the decision to protect her _after_ you saw whatever it was you saw. Your decision couldn't have affected the future before you'd made it. Therefore, she was still alive in a future where we'd tried to kill her." Rosalie thought for a moment, then nodded to herself, beaming proudly.

Alice blinked. "I … I have a headache."

"The point I'm making here, is that this Swan girl—on top of her resistance to yours and Edward's abilities, her scent, her sensing your presence, and the response her blood provoked in you—could also be capable of surviving a three-pronged vampire attack." Rosalie leaned down to catch Alice's eye. "Colour me concerned, Sister."

Alice had no response for her, and lowered her gaze, her brow knitting together. Rose sighed, and they began running again, in silence now.

Rosalie had only the family's safety at heart—cold and callous as that heart might sometimes appear—and Alice couldn't bring herself to begrudge her for that. Even if it was hard to admit, Rosalie's concerns could very well be valid. Was Alice being selfish? Not in protecting Bella's life, but at least in protecting her privacy? Digging up as much as they could on the girl sounded like the safe and reasonable thing to do. But the thought of siccing her siblings on Bella's personal files, of stalking her every step, and all the while trying to win her trust, it made Alice's stomach turn worse than any animal blood.

"Wait," Rosalie said. She came to a stop, so abrupt that Alice zipped past her and had to backtrack.

"What is it?"

Rosalie raised her face to the air, nostrils flaring as she drew in a few sharp breaths. "There's a human at the house," she said. "We should go around the back."

Alice followed after Rose, staying within the shadow of the tree line and leaping over the river to approach the house from the rear. Through the foliage she caught glimpses of the vehicle parked in their driveway.

A police cruiser.

"It's Chief Swan," Alice said, and finally picked up on the scent she'd been too preoccupied to notice earlier. He smelled ordinary. Normal hints of soap and leather.

Rosalie frowned. "I didn't think he was being genuine when he proposed dropping by."

They slowed to a walk as they came up to the sliding glass door from the back porch. Inside, they could see the Chief standing with Carlisle and Esme by the piano in the foyer. They were laughing politely at some joke he'd just made. Esme 'spotted' them as they entered.

"Ah, here are the girls now," she said. "How was your walk, dears? They've taken to exploring the property after school most days, Chief Swan."

"Charlie, please. I'm off duty." He turned to greet Rosalie and Alice. "Glad to see some of the youth in this town still have an appreciation for the great outdoors."

Alice forced a smile, quite convincingly. "Bella's not much of an outdoorswoman I take it, Chief?"

His eyes narrowed a fraction, and the pause before his next words might have gone unnoticed by any other room.

"Elyse, wasn't it?"

"Alice."

"Sorry, Alice." He grinned at Carlisle and Esme. "There's just an acre of them aren't there? I don't know how you keep track."

"We keep flowcharts," Esme said. "I imagine having just the one makes things simpler. I do hope Bella is well. I hear Alice missed her at school."

Chief Swan didn't catch the glare that Alice shot Esme's way. Esme's lips pressed together into a thin line to keep from smiling.

"She's fine," Charlie said, then glanced back at Alice. "See, my daughter _is_ something of an outdoorswoman. Raised her that way, and make a point to take her out hunting every season. Some things worth learning don't get taught in a classroom."

Alice frowned. When he'd mentioned hunting the other day, she hadn't realised that the activity included Bella. She tried to picture the girl trudging through the forest in a high-vis vest, lugging a rifle, but the image wouldn't come together, like mismatched puzzle pieces.

"Matter of fact," Charlie continued, "she prepared a little something for me to bring over. I hope you girls like venison."

Rosalie tried, and failed, to suppress a snort, and Alice jabbed her in the ribs with her elbow.

"That's very kind of you, Charlie," Carlisle said, quickly covering for them. "Give Bella our thanks."

"Cooler's in the back of my car," the Chief said, gesturing over his shoulder with a thumb. "Why don't you walk me out, Doc, and I'll get it for you?"

"You're sure you don't want to stay for coffee?" Esme said. "Tea?"

"Raincheck." He gave his goodbyes to Esme and the girls, and gave the Cullen house one last, impressed sweep of his eyes before walking with Carlisle back out to his car.

In the lingering silence, the three women shared a look.

"Well …" Esme said.

"Yeah," Alice said.

"Quite," Rosalie agreed.

Emmett appeared, suddenly, at the top of the stairs, dragging Edward along with him in a headlock and roughing the top of his head with his knuckles.

He froze when he saw them all standing in the foyer, and Edward took the opportunity to break free. His fingers immediately went to his hair, trying to repair whatever damage had been done.

"We miss something?" Emmett said.

Alice frowned. "I'm not sure."

"What did the Chief want?" Edward asked.

"Maybe you would know," Esme said, "if you boys had bothered coming down when I called for you."

Edward grimaced, and, somehow, Emmett actually seemed to shrink. "Sorry," they both said.

"So, who won?" Rosalie asked, starting up the stairs.

Edward finished 'fixing' his hair. It looked no different to Alice.

"It was a cooperative game," he said. "We both—"

Emmett cut him off, "I did. I won."

"That's my man." Rosalie met him at the landing and gave him a quick peck on the lips. "Now go find a bear to eat, for goodness' sake, before you incur Esme's wrath any further."


	6. Petrified

**6\. Petrified**

The past few days, Alice had taken to walking at night. She would wander the mist swept streets, and dark forest paths, painted black and white in the moonlight. The damp would seep into her clothes and droplets would form in her hair like rain on spider-silk. The night air soothed her overactive mind like a balm. It gave her the time and space that she needed to lay out her thoughts and emotions, organise them into proper rank and order. Of course, most of them had been filed away under a single column—Regarding Isabella Swan.

The girl was still a mystery, but one which Alice was determined to solve. She had never found herself so fascinated by anyone, by anything, before. That might have come with the territory of being a psychic. When she knew exactly what someone would do, when she could predict every decision they'd make even as they were making it—a lot of the surprise got sucked out of life.

Having that safety net ripped out from under her had been a massive shock to her system at first, but she was finding herself starting to enjoy it. With Bella in her head, she didn't know what would happen anymore. She was able to walk without purpose, not knowing where any step would take her as she wandered the outskirts of the small town. Something about the state of freedom and vulnerability that left her floating in was intoxicating.

But it couldn't last. The reality of the situation—the risks it created and the responsibilities it voided—weighed her back down.

She sighed. With no body heat, the breath in her lungs was as cold the surrounding air and didn't condense into fog when she exhaled. The mist clung to her skin and formed tiny crystals of ice along her cheekbones. The forest seemed to breathe with her, the canopy swaying, the trees moaning their slow song. Little heartbeats scampered along branches and through the undergrowth.

She could almost believe she belonged here. Almost.

Her family had often likened her to a gazelle in grace and form, but she'd always known this comparison was false. A pretty picture. A lie. She was a hyper-lethal predator, so far above the other beasts of the world she may as well have been elemental.

And she had never known anything else.

Alice wasn't normally one for self-pity—she left that to her brother—but at some point, over the last century, she had started taking things for granted. Even during her darkest times, those nightmare days after her awakening, she had always known she had a place waiting for her with the Cullens, with Jasper. But now everything was confused.

She knew what could happen, the way she wanted things to happen, but that certainty that had always been there before had been stripped away.

Alice stopped walking, and found that she was deeper into the forest than she'd realised. Dawn would arrive within the hour, and her family would be expecting her home before then.

She didn't turn back though, and she didn't press onward. She closed her eyes and, just for a moment, let herself feel all of it. She let herself be overcome. She grieved for a past she didn't remember, and a future that was growing more intangible with each passing day. In her mind, she let herself be swallowed by dark eyes. Fall into them. It was cathartic—if a little pathetic.

And then she opened her eyes and built up her mental walls once more, shutting off each conflicting thought and emotion from the other. She took a deep, steadying breath.

The faint scent of woodsmoke reached her nose, and she frowned. She was miles from town now. The closest bit of civilisation was a trailer park out near Elk Creek, but the wind direction was all wrong for that to be the source of the smoke.

She started running, deeper and deeper into the forest, and the scent grew stronger, becoming easier to track. There was something else though, drifting through the smoke. Something sweeter. A malign undertone that caused a tightening in her chest.

She slowed when she started to see the flickering of firelight through the trees. There was a path here which she might have mistaken for an animal trail were it not for the tyre tracks that churned up the soil.

The tracks led into a small clearing, and Alice got as close as she dared while remaining within the shadow of the trees. The scent grew stronger and stronger—sweeter and sweeter, and Alice felt like there was a blade of something colder than ice sliding between her ribs.

A fire pit had been dug out in the centre of the clearing. She could see the shape of a man standing before it, silhouetted by the flames. There was a quad bike parked at the edge of the clearing, and a cannister of gasoline on the ground beside it. Next to the fire was an unfurled tarpaulin sheet, stained black with blood.

The scent was so powerful now that it made every muscle in Alice's body tense up. She wanted to run. She wanted to hide. She wanted to lay down on the forest floor and let the moss grow over her in a blanket of green, until her body turned to stone.

The man picked up a branch and threw it atop the burning mass, sending sparks sailing skyward.

Alice suddenly knew was in that pit. It was the crackling of meat, the dripping of fat and the burning of hair.

She stopped breathing.

The man watched the flames, and Alice watched him. She knew the shape of him, tall and thin. He finally stepped away, leaving the fire to burn itself out, and Alice watched him walk over to the blood drenched tarp, watched as Chief Swan knelt down in the dirt to bundle it up. He carried it over to the quad bike, and secured it, alongside the can of gasoline, onto the rear cargo rack.

Alice felt that blade of ice twisting between her ribs, grinding against bone as it buried itself deeper. There was a pounding in her head, behind her eyes, resonating off the walls of her skull. She pictured herself punching her fist through Chief Swan's chest, wrapping her fingers around his heart and squeezing.

Her body was still rooted to the spot as he started the bike and took off back down the trail. She fought her instincts, clenching her teeth and curling her toes, her whole-body straining with the effort to shake off the effects of that hideous scent.

She was all but paralysed, just like before, just like in the locker room, when the blood had run down over Bella's lips and dripped to the floor. That sweet scent that wrapped around her, coiled and constricted. Her body wanted to run, but she couldn't let herself, not yet. Not until she was in control again.

Alice didn't look into the flames. She knew what she'd see there and she knew she couldn't bear to see it. She needed to focus. Focus. She was a hyper-lethal predator, and now she had something to hunt.

It was several minutes more before her legs finally obeyed her, and she took off after the quad bike at a sprint.

The head start he had gotten meant the bike was long out of earshot, even for her, and she didn't dare try to follow it by scent. She didn't dare breathe. She simply had to follow the trail he had taken, and the tyre tracks he left behind.

Eventually, she started to pick up on the sounds of civilisation, and streetlights began to peek through the trees. This was the southern edge of Forks, what might barely be considered a part of the town at all. The spaces between houses were wider, and most of the yards backed directly onto the forest. She kept to the trees as she dashed past each of them before coming to a dead stop behind one which had an old rust-coloured pickup and a police cruiser in the driveway.

The house itself was a small two story, with white wooden sidings. A lonely old tree stood in the backyard, its branches reaching out and nearly brushing the windows of the upper floor. There was a well-tended garden bed by the back porch, and a large pile of heaped earth beside a tool shed in one corner of the yard, as if someone had dug up space for a swimming pool that wasn't there.

The quad bike was parked next to the tool shed, and the door was ajar, dull light from a single globe spilling out across the lawn. Alice could hear movement inside. A hose running, water spraying against concrete. She stalked forward.

The porch light of the house flicked on, and Alice ducked back into cover, crouching low among the ferns. The door shuddered open, springs straining, and Bella stepped out onto the porch.

Alice's whole body relaxed. She felt the blade of ice retract from her chest and she breathed, deeply, letting the girl's strange floral perfume wash over her. It was both the same, and yet somehow so very different from that suffocating scent that had drifted from the fire pit.

"Charlie?" Bella squinted out into the dark. She was wrapped up in a thick, fleece bathrobe. Her hair was wet, clinging to her neck.

The water shut off, and the light in the shed went dark. Chief Swan stepped out, padlocking the door behind him.

"Bells," he called out, crossing the lawn, the frost-touched grass crunching beneath his boots. "What are you still doing up? You must be dead on your feet."

"I'm fine," Bella said.

Chief Swan paused at the top of the porch steps, examining her face under the light. "You sure?"

She nodded, ducking her head and hugging her robe tighter around herself. "No, you're right. I'm tired. And it's freezing out here. I should go to bed."

"Right," he said. "Get a few hours of sleep, Bells."

She turned and he followed her inside, closing the door behind them. A few moments later the porch light flicked off.

Alice listened to the two sets of footsteps—Bella's lighter, barefoot, padding up the stairs. Doors opening and closing. Chief Swan remained on the ground floor. She heard a TV switch on, bringing with it the animated voices of sports commentators.

Alice crept forward across the darkened yard. She didn't know what she was doing, what had possessed her. Bella was okay, she was safe. Alice could hear her now, moving around upstairs.

And yet it wasn't enough. She'd thought … she'd been so sure that she'd lost her. Lost her before she'd ever even had her. She needed to _know_. She needed to be closer.

She took two bounding steps and leapt, propelling herself up into the highest branches of the old tree in the backyard. The branch she landed on barely so much as swayed, not a leaf rustled, and she crept along its length until she was able to look down through the open window into the upstairs bedroom on this side of the house.

It was definitely Bella's room. The bed was unmade, and haphazardly decorated with too many throw pillows. The desk was a clutter of textbooks and worksheets, and housed a derelict computer that was even older than those in the school's computer lab. A shelf hung above the desk, with a stereo system that was easily the most expensive piece of technology in the room. The spaces next to it were overflowing with CDs. The bookshelf in the corner was similarly full, with even more books stacked on top. Alice couldn't discern any real method of organisation in either collection.

There were clothes everywhere, of course. Alice wasn't sure which pile was meant to be clean, and which was dirty, but neither the hamper nor the chest of draws seemed to be getting used. There was underwear peeking out from under the bed. She spotted that same suede, Sherpa jacket hanging off the back of the desk chair, right next to a baseball jersey. Fifty-One. Ichiro.

Alice shook her head, dismayed. "Bella, I swear, I could have handled you being a Mariners fan, but did you have to be such a teenager too?"

She heard the girl's footsteps, crossing the hall from what must have been the bathroom. The door swung open and Alice pressed herself closer against her branch.

Bella crossed the room, gingerly, over to her bed, and pulled back the duvet. Then she paused. She looked towards the window, her eyebrows knitting together.

Silently, Alice slid back down her branch and kicked off the trunk of the tree, flipping backwards and landing on the balls of her feet in the centre of the backyard. She blurred into the cover of the trees.

Bella reached her bedroom window and looked out into the night. She leaned forward over the window sill, her eyes sweeping across the backyard, and then settling on the old tree.

She reached out, slowly, until her fingertips brushed the closest branch, and she frowned.

Alice watched. She was nervous and she didn't know why. There was no possible way Bella could have detected her presence.

Finally, Bella withdrew her hand. She shook her head as if to clear it, and slid the window closed, stepping back and being lost from sight.

The sky was growing gently brighter, the stars fading from view. Alice left the Swan house behind. She retraced her steps until she found the trail again, and followed it back into the deep of the forest. She didn't run. She needed to think.

By the time she reached the clearing again, the sun's light had crept up over the mountains. It would spill over the forest, over the town, for a few hours, but be hidden away again behind a layer of cloud cover before Alice or her siblings had to start school.

The fire had mostly burnt itself down. Still, Alice didn't risk breathing anywhere near it.

She picked a short stick off the ground and used it to poke through the smoking heap. There was almost nothing left. She recognised the charred remains of what might have been flesh, but they crumbled to ash when she disturbed them.

"No bones," she muttered to herself. "Fire couldn't have burned that hot. There has to be something left ..." Alice stopped. "There has to be something left. Damn it."

She threw the stick away and dropped to her knees. She steeled herself. The fire might have been out, but the embers still smouldered and burned.

She thrust her hands into the fire pit, sifting through the ash. The heat was immediate, but the pain was slower to follow. As she pushed her hands in deeper, white hot coals brushed against her, and she felt her granite skin begin to burn.

Then she felt something else. Her fingers closed around it and she hissed as she wrenched her hands free.

They were red and raw, her skin split and blistered.

She hadn't been burned in a long time. She'd forgotten how much it sucked.

She uncurled her left hand, revealing the tooth that lay in her palm. A human canine, root and all. Slightly blackened by the fire, but otherwise no worse for wear.

Alice rolled the tooth around in her palm.

"Huh."


	7. Nicotine & Sweet Decay

**7\. Nicotine & Sweet Decay**

Alice flicked off the CD player, abruptly silencing the soft piano composition that flowed through the car.

"I was listening to that."

"Edward, I am telling you, something deeply wrong was happening out there last night."

Her brother steered the silver Volvo into the Forks High car park, sliding into an open space next to Emmett's jeep. Neither of them moved to climb out.

After the incident last night with Chief Swan, Alice had gotten home with barely enough time to wash the ash and dirt from herself. The burns on her hands had started to heal, using up the reserves of blood in her system from her last hunt, causing her eyes to darken to black again. Her hands still looked raw, and sung with pain, but they'd be fine by the evening. For now, she'd covered them up with a pair of elbow-length gloves.

Esme had fussed over her, helping her change into a fresh pair of clothes and style her hair into something resembling its usual high-maintenance chaos.

Her mind was full of knives as she tried to make sense of what she'd witnessed, and she'd sat in silence for most of the ride to school. Edward now watched her out of the corner of his eye

"I should have done something," she said, mostly to herself.

"What could you have done?" Edward said. "Attacked the Chief of Police? Killed him?"

"God, but I wanted to," she said. "I saw it. I _smelt_ it. It was Bella, her body, her blood, I could have sworn."

Edward sighed. "But it wasn't her. You went to the house and she was fine."

"Well he was disposing of _something_ out there. Someone. A tooth, Edward! I found a human tooth."

"I'll admit," he said, "that is concerning. But I'm not sure what you want us to do about it—about any of this. You've made it pretty clear that the rest of us should keep our distance."

"And you should," Alice said quickly. "I just … I'm just worried. I don't know what's going on. I don't know how to feel. This is all just so fucked up."

He frowned. "No—"

"No cursing in the Volvo, I know," she said, cutting him off. "Sorry, grandpa."

"We're the same age."

"Yes, but I wear it better."

Edward grinned, and bumped his fist against her shoulder. "Alice, honestly, I …" He trailed off, his brow knitting together. He wasn't even looking at her anymore, his eyes had fixed onto the rear-view mirror. "… I really don't think you have anything to be concerned about."

Alice turned around in her seat. A faded red pickup had just pulled in to the carpark. It was the same truck she'd seen in the driveway of the Swan house last night. A 53 Chevy, she thought, and could thank Rosalie for that knowledge. Alice enjoyed her cars as much as any self-respecting vampire, but Rosalie had a passion for them which, honestly, sometimes scared her.

Over the cacophonous roar of the truck's engine, Alice could hear the indie-rock pouring from its crackling sound system, and just make out the quiet voice mumbling along to the lyrics.

The engine cut, and a moment later Bella Swan hopped down out of the cab, swinging her bag over her shoulder.

The same faded jeans and suede jacket. The same old boots. But fresh life had been breathed into her. Her hair was richer, fuller, and Alice could make out warm notes she'd never noticed before among the darker brown. Her heart-shaped face was still thin, cheekbones still too sharp against her skin, but the shadows had disappeared from beneath her eyes, and there was a healthy flush in her cheeks.

No longer was Bella curled in on herself. Her shoulders were back, her chin high. She even walked differently, taking longer, more confident strides.

Alice blinked. "Huh."

Edward was about to say something, but Alice payed him no mind. She cracked her door and climbed out of the Volvo, moving to put herself into Bella's path. She wasn't sure what she wanted to say. She remembered their last interaction, in the locker room, and figured she needed to apologise, somehow, for what had happened. It would have helped if she actually _understood_ what had happened. If she understood anything that had been going on.

Bella saw her, and the girl's step faltered. Something flashed across her face which made the words die in Alice's throat.

Fury.

It was there and then it was gone. Bella's expression relaxed, her eyes almost seeming to look through her. She brushed by without slowing, leaving Alice standing there, stunned.

"Huh," Alice said, again.

* * *

Throughout the rest of the week, every chance that she got, Alice would steal glances at Bella Swan.

But Bella never met her eyes.

Sometimes, in the cafeteria, or during class, the fine hairs on the back of Alice's neck would stand on end, and she'd think she could feel the girl's gaze upon her. But each time she looked over, Bella would be buried in her text books, or picking at her lunch again.

It was starting to become more than Alice could bear. Desperately, she wanted to approach her again, but she could find neither the opportunity nor the words. That tiny moment, that look of rage, still haunted her.

It had almost been like Bella had disappeared, in that moment, and looking back at Alice had been somebody else entirely. She'd done a lot of things in her life that warranted that sort of hatred, but she'd never been pinned by a look like that before.

It wasn't until Friday, during Mr Mason's first period English, that she received some small respite.

She'd been watching Bella as usual—and as usual, Bella's eyes only come up from her books to copy off the board. Never flickering an inch in Alice's direction.

Alice still couldn't get over the fact that this girl, sitting a few feet away from her, was the same sickly creature she'd met last week. The same Bella she'd thought she'd seen dead only a few nights ago.

Sitting there like any other high school girl.

She even chewed on her pencil. Bella Swan chewed on her pencil. That was normally the sort of thing that would irritate Alice.

It did irritate her. A little. It was also sort of endearing.

Someone jabbed Alice's shoulder, and she glanced up and saw her table mate, a boy named Ben, staring at her. He didn't normally stare at her. Alice had thought it a little prejudiced that they'd put the two shortest people in class together, but she didn't mind because at least he never stared—or really showed any interest in her at all. That was what she'd liked about him most.

Ben's eyes flicked to the front, pointedly, and then back to Alice.

She looked forward.

Mr Mason was watching her, eyebrows raised expectantly.

"Sir?" Alice said.

"The question, Ms Cullen?"

"The question … that you asked me …"

He sat down on the edge of his desk, a small smile on his face.

"Unless, you weren't paying attention, Ms Cullen?"

"No, I …" Alice stopped, scanned the board. What had the class been discussing?

Within her mind, she started choosing answers arbitrarily, only basing her guesses around what she last remembered Mr Mason talking about. It took more effort than she'd have liked—what with Bella occupying so much of her headspace—but if she strained her focus, she could scan the future with each new response she chose, checking to see the result and narrowing it down.

After three and a half seconds of this, and dozens of possible futures searched, she found what she was looking for.

"Faulkner, Sir?" she said.

Mr Mason's smile grew a little wider, and he nodded, satisfied.

"That's right." He turned back to the board, moving the discussion forward, and Alice sunk a little deeper into her chair.

The hairs on the back of her neck tingled, and she glanced over her shoulder, to the back of the class. Bella stared back at her. She held Alice's gaze for a heartbeat, before lowering her head and letting her hair fall in a curtain between them.

There had been no anger in her expression. Not even a ghost of that fury. Only curiosity.

* * *

That little look, that lingering moment of eye contacted, was enough to last Alice through the weekend—but no longer.

On Monday morning she had been thinking hard about the best way to approach Bella again.

Should she orchestrate some chance encounter? In the hall, between classes? Or perhaps somewhere in town? She'd have to figure out where Bella did her grocery shopping. No, that was too much. Boundaries where important, and she didn't want to startle her again. She wanted to be honest with her—as honest as she could be. Perhaps she should simply ask for help on an English assignment? That was much more innocent. Then again, she didn't really know what Bella's grades looked like. She was focussed, certainly, but her classroom engagement left something to be desired. Maybe she could—

"_Alice_," Edward said, and his voice was strained. He was pinching the bridge of his nose, looking almost in pain.

"Sorry," she mumbled.

He had been avoiding her recently, going as far as to stay home from hunting with the rest of them over the weekend, just so he could have a moment of peace while she was away.

She wasn't sure it had been worth it in the end. His eyes were coal black today, and she was sure his thirst was grating on him just as much as her incessant thoughts.

They were in the cafeteria, sitting around the table they'd claimed as their own. They still drew stares, but the attention directed their way had diminished somewhat since their first week here.

To none of their surprise, Alice and her siblings had officially named Edward the winner of their little game. He'd been propositioned by thirteen different humans—falling just shy of his all-time record—and Rosalie had come in second place with a very respectable score of eight.

Alice didn't want to even think about her own performance. She'd have said she was off her game, but if she was being honest with herself, she'd never been much of a contender.

Jasper was the only one who'd ever given Edward any real competition.

Alice gritted her teeth and diverted her thoughts, before she allowed herself to linger on anything better left alone.

Bella operated on a schedule entirely her own, and it was halfway through the lunch period before she entered the cafeteria.

Alice steeled herself. She needed to do something—anything—to change the status quo. Otherwise it wouldn't be long until Edward started making her take a separate car to school.

Alice waited until Bella had paid for her lunch and taken her spot at her usual table, then she rose out of her seat.

She heard Edward sigh, and Emmett chuckle. Rosalie didn't even glance up from her phone.

Alice navigated the crowded cafeteria, balancing her tray on her palm. In her peripheries, she noticed Jessica Stanley, over at the 'in crowd's' table, watching her progress with narrowed eyes. She hoped that wasn't something she'd have to deal with later.

Alice slid into the seat opposite Bella without a word. The girl stiffened, her sandwich frozen half-way to her mouth. She stared across the table at Alice, her jaw hanging open slightly, eyes blown wide.

Delicately, Alice cleared her throat and said, "Hi."

It was as if the mere possibility that someone might join her at her lunch table had never occurred to Bella.

Alice didn't mind. She waited patiently, savouring the candid image before her. She felt a want—a small urge to reach across the space between them and push that infuriatingly full lower lip closed.

Bella made a small noise, something approaching a word.

Alice arched one eyebrow, suppressed a smile.

Bella's cheeks flushed. She squeezed her eyes shut, swallowed, tried again. "Hey? What—What are you doing?"

"Well …" Alice said, crossing her legs, "I've been thinking about what you said, the last time we spoke."

Bella shook her head, as if trying to shake off her confusion. "What?"

"The week before last, in the locker room before Gym," Alice explained. "You asked me what my 'problem' was?"

"Oh." Bella lowered her sandwich back onto her tray. "Right."

"I mean, I'm pretty sure it was meant to be rhetorical, but it got me thinking." Alice leaned forward, not allowing her expression to change when Bella shifted back slightly in response. "Firstly," she said. "I wanted to apologise."

Something unreadable flickered across Bella's face. Her lips twitched. "Yeah, you have been a little underfoot."

Alice blinked. Was that a joke? Did Bella Swan just make a _short_ joke?

"Low blow," Alice said.

"It would have to be," Bella said.

Something about her expression—the way she seemed almost shocked at her own words, even as they slid out—Alice couldn't help the short bark of laughter that escaped her.

"Wow," Alice said. "Isabella Swan, you are full of surprises."

Bella shrugged, hiding her blush by picking up her sandwich again, taking a dainty bite. Her gaze flicked down to Alice's tray—her lonely apple and juice box. Alice could almost see Bella's mind working, storing that little piece of information away.

_Damn_, Alice thought. She glanced across the room, and knew that her siblings had seen it too.

"My brother, Edward, he thinks I have something of an obsessive personality," Alice said, shifting her focus back to Bella. "I think that's a little rich coming from him—but he might not be entirely wrong."

"Right." Bella's eyes slid sideways, over to the Cullen table.

Rosalie was still focussed on her phone, but the tightness in her jaw gave away her anger. Her brothers were less subtle, openly staring back at the two of them.

Alice hummed. "You have to understand, I'm very good at … _predicting_ people. No one surprises me. Or, no one did—Until you."

Bella was dissecting her sandwich now. She picked a strip of meat from it, chewed it slowly. "Right," she said again, and swallowed. "So, what?"

Alice caught Edward's eye across the room, and tilted her head in question.

_How much trouble would I be in?_

Edward rolled his eyes, but gave her a single nod.

Alice turned back to Bella, grinning now.

"So … I think we should be friends," she said. "You know, hang out and stuff. We haven't finished all the renovations on the house yet, but you could come over to study sometime. Or whatever. We could do something else. Something you want to do. I don't really know. Do you like shopping?"

Alice cut herself off before she could ramble any further. She could tell that Bella had seen the exchange between her and her brother. She was making that face again, like she was working something out.

"Yeah …" Bella said, "this whole situation? Pretty weird. And you already asked me if I wanted to hang out."

"Only technically," Alice said. "And as I recall, you never actually said no."

Bella pushed her seat back, standing and picking up her tray, half eaten sandwich, half empty can of soda. Alice followed a step behind as she walked to the door, dumping her food in the trash, and stacking the tray.

"This is probably a bad idea," Bella finally said. "You haven't even been here a month. I wouldn't want to irrevocably damage your reputation so soon."

Alice laughed. "Who says that? _Irrevocably_," she mocked, deepening her voice in a poor imitation of Bella's. "Anyway, that won't happen. I mean—have you seen me? I'm adorable. It's going to take more than an association with you to turn people off of all this."

Bella's eyes slid down Alice's body and back up. She turned and walked out of the cafeteria.

Alice had to skip to keep up with her longer gait. She followed her around the side of the cafeteria, down a gap between buildings where the pavement stopped and the weeds grew untamed. Bella came to a halt and leaned back against the redbrick wall. She reached inside her jacket, retrieving a partially crushed packet of menthols and a plastic lighter.

Alice noted the stubbed-out butts that littered the ground around their feet.

_So, this is where she spends all her time?_ She didn't remember smelling any smoke on her the few times they'd interacted before.

Bella lit her cigarette, shielding it from the wind, and took a short drag.

"That's an awful habit, you know?" Alice said.

Bella turned her head and exhaled the smoke in Alice's direction.

Alice waved away the offensive cloud, and let her annoyance show. "Seriously? You are _so_ not as cool as you think you are."

Bella smiled. "Sorry."

Alice moved around to stand upwind. Bella smoked, and Alice tried not to make it too obvious just how closely she was watching her.

"Tell me something," Bella said, after a moment. "Excluding myself—can you name one friend you've got here?"

"I—uh …" Alice faltered, and then beamed suddenly. "Tyler from Sosh!"

Bella put out her cigarette on the side of the building, and then slipped it back into the pack. To finish later, apparently.

She stepped towards Alice, moving in just a bit too close, and Alice felt her muscles tense up.

Bella's breath was nicotine and sweet decay.

"Tell me something else," she said softly.

Alice stared up at her. "… Okay."

"Do you wear contacts?"

Alice tilted her head. "No?"

Bella nodded to herself. "Your eyes today are almost … gold. I could have sworn they were black."

An icy blade slipped between Alice's ribs.

_Stupid, stupid, vampire._

"I have to go," Bella said, stepping away. "Biology II."

Alice didn't move. She kept staring, straight ahead, out into the wild green that bordered the edge of the school. Then something dawned on her and she spun around.

"Wait!" she called after Bella. "Just before—you said '_excluding myself_'. Does that mean we _are_ friends?"

Bella didn't stop walking, just shot her a half-wave over her shoulder.


	8. Blue Skies

**8\. Blue Skies**

Alice was filled with nervous energy. The kind that tangled her up in some mix of anticipation and apprehension. It wasn't a bad feeling, not really. It was new and exciting, and she found herself all but skipping down the hall on her way to Mr Mason's English class.

When she spotted her sister stalking towards her, her mood took a nosedive.

Rosalie had been trying to corner and confront her all morning. She'd been easy enough to avoid at home—Alice spent little enough time there these days as it was—but the closer she got to seeing Bella again, the harder it became to predict and avoid Rose.

Yesterday had welcomed in one of those oh-so-rare sunny days to the dreary town of Forks. It had been genuine blue skies, which meant, much to her dismay, Alice's next chance to talk to Bella had been postponed.

Esme had called the school, letting them know that the Cullen mob would be making the best of the good weather and taking the day to go hiking. A simple lie, and one they would tell often enough, it would become accepted without question. Expected even.

Of course, just because she couldn't go out in the open, didn't mean she couldn't indulge herself a little.

She had spent the majority of the day sneaking around the edge of the school grounds, keeping just within the shadow of the tree line. This time she had to admit to herself that she had, in fact, been sneaking.

She really was obsessed, and that knowledge somewhat horrified her. Yet, as inexcusable as it was, it did also appeal to her predatory side. She'd told herself that it wasn't all about Bella—that it had been as much an excuse to avoid her siblings. She had wanted to delay, as long as possible, revealing to them the details of her last encounter with the girl.

But the truth was, Alice had felt a sort of electricity thrumming through her cold veins as she'd prowled the tree line, watched Bella moving between her classes.

During lunch, Bella had gone around the far side of the school to smoke her menthol cigarettes again, and Alice had sprawled herself out along one of the highest limbs of an old elm. The sunlight splintered down through the canopy and set fire to the thousands of diamond-like pores within her skin. The display was unsettlingly beautiful, but Alice didn't think it held a candle to Bella.

The light played through her hair, picking out the auburn undertones. It made her eyes look brighter and warmer. Made her look happier. Made Alice realise just how unhappy she had always looked before.

In the end, she'd had to pull herself away before she did anything more stupid than usual. By the time she'd arrived home, she'd been so preoccupied with her little obsession that Edward had gleaned everything from her mind anyway.

It hadn't been long until Rosalie found out, and Alice had been dodging her ever since.

Until now, at least.

"Don't you dare try to scamper off again," Rosalie all but hissed, and led Alice by the elbow over to the wall of lockers. She spoke low and fast enough that none of the students passing by would overhear them. "What were you thinking?"

Alice shrugged. "Shouldn't you ask the other freak?"

"I did," Rosalie said. "And he said you _weren't_. Honestly, I don't know why he's still trying to defend you. You're letting this girl get too close. She's noticing things. She noticed your eyes changing, for god's sake."

Alice wrenched her arm out of Rosalie's grip. "I have it under control."

"I don't need to be a mind reader to know when you're lying, Sister. And I don't need to be a psychic to see when something is going to end badly."

Alice bit down on the automatic rebuttal that sprung to her lips. Maybe Rose was right. Maybe she only wanted to believe she had a handle on things. It had all started to blur. She was falling sway to her emotions and ignoring what logic and her instincts were telling her.

The first period rush was over, and the hallway was emptying. The rest of her classmates had already gone in and taken their seats. Alice caught a whiff of dying flowers and glanced towards the door, saw Bella hesitating there, watching them.

Rosalie noticed her to, and she leaned in a little closer. "Don't forget your promise. The girl is your responsibility."

She shot the briefest of glares in Bella's direction before turning and storming off.

Alice watched her go, and when she looked back, Bella had already slipped into the classroom.

* * *

"Your sister seems fun."

Alice had been standing at her locker, trying to figure out how the school administration expected her to store a years' worth of reading material inside it. She startled, and almost dropped a Physics textbook on her foot, when Bella Swan suddenly appeared beside her.

Alice's eyebrows furrowed. "Yeah, she's bunches and bunches. How did you do that?"

"Do what?" Bella asked, eyes wide with faux-innocence.

"Never mind," Alice said, and slammed her locker shut.

Bella chuckled, and the sound made Alice feel lighter. She wanted to hear more of it. She wanted to hear her really laugh and see her really smile.

"Would you believe me if I told you that a wise, old Indian taught me?" Bella said.

They had started towards the cafeteria, and Alice wasn't sure which of them was leading the other.

"Probably not," Alice said.

"Figures," Bella said. "There _was_ an old Indian though. Except I just called him Uncle Billy, and all he did teach me was how to drive stick shift and tie a clinch knot."

"Your uncle's Native American?" Alice's thoughts went to the reservation, and the wolves that had resided there only a few decades ago.

"Not really," Bella said. "He's my godfather—but it's complicated. He and my dad had a kind of a … falling out."

Bella had curled in on herself a little more as she talked, and—curious as she was—Alice decided not to push the subject. She got the feeling that Bella didn't offer personal information freely very often.

They exited the main campus building, and cut across the courtyard. There was no sun today, but the weather was warm and clear enough, relatively speaking, that a portion of the student body had decided to have lunch outside.

Several sets of eyes followed them, and Alice couldn't guess what they saw. She and Bella had their similarities—both being pale, dark-haired and thin to the extreme. Yet the top of Alice's head didn't quite reach the girl's chin, and their choices in fashion couldn't have been more contrary.

Alice was used to the stares, she had never known anything else, but from the sudden stiffness of Bella's gait, it was clear that she was not. She had her head down, hair falling around her face, and Alice wondered if it was simply the unwanted attention, or if Bella felt in some way insecure walking beside her.

Alice's jeans alone probably cost more than Bella's truck.

The thought was dismaying, and Alice snapped her head around, meeting each pair of eyes in turn. As much as a vampire's appearance was designed to lure humans in, there would always be something about them that unsettled, and the students quickly looked away.

When they entered the cafeteria, Edward was, as usual, holding a place in the queue for her. He showed no surprise at her company, and when they slipped into line beside him, he nodded past her, to Bella.

"Hey, Lab Partner," he said, grinning.

"Hey," Bella said.

Alice waited, but neither of them looked like they would be adding anything more.

"Wow," she said, "yeah, I can feel the comradery."

"We have a system," Bella said.

"A good system," Edward said. "We're top of the class. I have a feeling we'll be bringing home the coveted '_Golden Onion_' this afternoon."

Bella nodded, selecting a piece of rectangular pizza for her tray, which Alice thought was rather adventurous for her.

"It's not that hard," Bella said, "when you, you know, do the work."

"And don't waste time on silly things like pleasantries," Edward said.

"Yup. That would be the system," Bella said.

"Aforementioned," Edward added.

"… Okay then," Alice said, and turned to Bella. "I'll be sitting with you again today."

"Right," was all Bella said.

They reached the end of the queue, and Bella started fishing around in her pockets for her wallet, but Edward waved her away.

"I'm paying," he said.

"That's not necessary—" Bella started, but Alice intervened.

"There's really no use," she said, grimacing. "Edward always has to be the gentlemen. It's best to just humour him."

"My fragile, masculine pride, you understand?" Edward handed over a neatly folded bill to the lunch lady, who stared up at him with unconcealed adoration.

"Right," Bella said again, drawing out the word. "I mean—thanks, I guess." She stood there for a second, like she wasn't sure how to proceed. then turned on her heel and departed quickly for her table.

Edward arched an eyebrow but Alice just shook her head.

The lunch lady was still staring, still holding Edward's money.

"Could I have my change?" he asked.

"Oh," she said, her face flushing red as she fumbled open the register. "Of course, silly me. You're so generous—paying for their lunch like that."

Edward smiled that crooked smile, and Alice thought the lunch lady might just faint.

She rolled her eyes, leaving him to torture the poor woman.

As she crossed the room, she heard a familiar, girlish voice call out.

"Hey, New Girl!"

Jessica Stanley was waving her arm above her head, flagging Alice over to the table she shared with some of the school's more attractive and athletic students.

The pretty brunette was sporting a subtle tan today, and had probably spent most of the previous day laying out in the sun just to achieve it.

Alice glanced over to Bella, sitting alone, then sighed and reluctantly wandered over to Jessica's table.

"Hey there," Jessica said. "Alice, right?"

"That's me," Alice said.

The other occupants of the table looked up at her with a mix of expressions. She knew Tyler Crowley, who seemed very interested indeed, and she recognised Lauren, and Mike Newton, from Gym. Alice deduced they were an item—from the way she was all but sitting in his lap. There was another girl, with honeyed hair and horn-rimmed glasses. She looked a little out of place next to the others, and even sitting down she was taller than Alice.

"Hi," Alice said, with a little wave to the table as a whole.

"I've been meaning to talk to you," Jessica said. "Love the shirt, by the way. Where'd you get it? Seattle?"

_Milan._ "Yeah."

"Why don't you sit down? We have room, right guys?"

"Thanks," Alice said, "but I'm having lunch with Bella today."

"Nibbles?" Lauren asked. "Uh, why?"

There was a tense moment, and then the Newton boy cleared his throat.

"No, that's cool, actually," he said. "Swan works weekends at my parents' shop. She can be pretty funny in a … _laconic_ sort of way. I always thought it was a shame she didn't seem to hang out with anyone. Glad she's warmed up to you."

Alice blinked. "Yeah … me too. Guess I'll see you guys in Gym."

She gave another meek wave, and turned to walk away. Behind her, she heard Lauren claiming her boyfriend's attention.

"You didn't tell me Nibbles had cancer."

"… What?" Mike said.

"Jesus, Lauren," Jessica said. "Laconic not leukemic. No one's got the Big C."

Alice shook her head. She slid into the seat opposite Bella, who acknowledged her with an arched brow.

"What was that about?"

Alice sighed. "I have no idea. Jessica's probably just looking for access to my brother."

"Sounds like Jess," Bella said, and then paused. "Actually, you should introduce them."

"… Why?"

Bella shrugged. "He'd enjoy her sycophancy—She'd enjoy his wallet. Plus, she's gonna go after him regardless. Jess always needs the prettiest things."

Alice crossed her arms. "Oh, and that's my brother, is it?"

"Yeah, obviously," Bella said. "Even the goddamn lunch lady was eye-fucking him back there."

Alice huffed. "Two seconds ago, you actually use the word sycophancy. Now you're just being crass."

Bella chuckled, and shifted forward a little in her seat. "What's the matter? You're not jealous, are you? Is your brother getting all the attention?"

Alice glared.

"Oh my god, you are," Bella said, with a slow smile. "You're lime green Jell-O."

"You know, Jessica mentioned the two of you had been friends," Alice said. "Now I see it."

Bella's smile slipped away, and Alice realised her mistake. Jessica had said they'd been close, that it was sandbox love … and that it had changed after Bella's mother died.

_Damn it._

"I guess we were," Bella said, and left it at that.

She picked up her slice of pizza, took a bite. Alice couldn't imagine how it was supposed to be appealing, it looked like fifty percent grease and fifty percent cheese. The smell almost made her gag, but she was happy that Bella's appetite seemed to have improved.

"You haven't tried to give me an explanation yet," Bella said, suddenly. "About your eyes."

Alice ran her tongue over her lip, thinking for a moment. Finally, she said, "Would you believe it was a trick of the light?"

"Probably not," Bella said.

"Figures."

Bella was looking at her, that way she did sometimes, like Alice was a puzzle in need of solving.

"I haven't thanked you yet, either," Alice said, thinking of something to derail her. "Your dad came over, a couple of weeks ago, and dropped off some deer. Said we had you to thank. So, thanks."

Bella's face turned a little sour. "Yeah … you probably didn't realise we had rednecks this far north. Sorry, it's just a sort of family tradition. Charlie's been taking me out since I was a kid. Hiking, hunting, fishing. It's a whole thing."

"Sounds like fun."

Bella grunted. "Bunches and bunches."

"What?" Alice said. "Don't think I'd be interested in a good hunt? You don't exactly seem the type either, you know."

Bella was quiet. Her eyes were lowered, lashes casting long shadows down over her cheekbones. She was looking at her hands, her fingers splayed on the edge of the tabletop.

She spoke softly. "I don't know what to think of you, Alice."

Alice realised she had never heard Bella speak her name before. The name she'd chosen for herself. It danced electric down the line of her spine.

Bella rose out of her seat. "I … I need a smoke."

Alice made to stand, but Bella just said, "See you in Gym," and then she was gone.

Little by little, more and more, the cafeteria emptied. Then the bell for fifth period rang. Minutes passed, and Alice found she was still sitting there. She was lost within herself, trying to dissect and understand. Trying to see all the ways this could end badly.

Her visions roiled and raged. Spilled into each other, and tore out of each other.

Finally, she closed them off, a dull throb spreading out from somewhere in the base of her skull.

She was late to Social Studies, she realised, and grimaced. Creepy Jefferson would not be kind.


	9. Red Right Hand

**9\. Red Right Hand**

A routine had begun taking shape.

Each day they would meet at the start of the lunch period. Sometimes Alice would have to seek her out, but more often than not, it was Bella who found her. The girl was uncanny that way.

They would collect their food and sit at their table in the corner of the cafeteria. To an outside observer, there conversations would have seemed ordinary, like nothing of consequence was being said. But Alice knew different. Their friendship was still a tentative thing, and they were feeling each other out. Testing boundaries. Catching glimpses through the veil.

Bella found new ways to surprise her every day. Alice never knew which version of the girl would manifest itself. She was shy and fumbling, calm and reserved, mischievous and amusing, eloquent and disarming, crude and insufferable.

She was faceted, to say the least, and it left Alice feeling all sorts of spun about. Like she was playing along in some game she didn't know the rules to.

Her siblings respected her wishes, and other than Edward's terse, daily interactions in Biology, they kept their distance from Bella. But there was something festering beneath. Alice felt it in their eyes. Felt it in quiet moments. An aura of resentment was pervading their home.

Alice couldn't blame them. She'd been asking for a lot and giving little in return. Even after fifty years, blind faith could only extend so far.

They were a family, not a coven, and Alice had sought them out, chosen them, because of that distinction. They had welcomed her with far more grace and understanding than she deserved, and her only means of repayment had been with her gift. She'd been able to offer them security in an everchanging world.

Now she had rescinded that gift, for her own selfish reasons. She was flirting danger. Literally.

How could they not resent her for that?

In the back of her mind, some part of herself had always whispered, never letting her forget that she was different. That, though they may have loved her, she wasn't really one of them.

The Cullens tried to hold onto every sliver of their humanity they could. It was the reason they chose to maintain semi-permanent residences. The reason they held down jobs, and matriculated again and again, enduring the tedium of high school and college.

It was a sort of exposure therapy. They surrounded themselves with humanity, and it helped them stay in touch with their own, helped them build up stronger resistances to the thirst.

It was different for Alice. She wasn't trying to hold onto anything, because there wasn't anything there. She had no foundation to build upon. She was a monster born. The Cullens, this family, this future, it was a wish. It was reaching out and desperately hoping that she could touch that brightness and draw some of it back in.

Because she knew what she was, at the core of herself, and it scared her.

* * *

Alice had to limit her own performance during Volleyball.

She was only four-foot ten, after all—it would raise a few eyebrows if she jumped her own height to spike the ball. So, she hung out in the back and let the more 'athletic' students like Mike Newton and Lauren Mallory take charge.

The positive side to this was that she had a lot of downtime while she waited for the game to find its way back to her. Naturally, her eyes gravitated towards Bella.

The girl was down the other end of the gymnasium, playing on a different court. She surprised Alice with her energy today. She was holding her own against her direct opposition, Angela Weber, the girl with honeyed hair who'd been sitting at Jessica's lunch table. She cut an intimidating figure, standing taller than many of the boys.

Bella was working up quite a sweat, her clothes clinging tight against her body, and Alice fought to keep her gaze from lingering anywhere it really shouldn't.

_Stupid vampire_, she chided herself.

The ball went up, and Angela leapt forward and sent it back across the net. It came at Bella too fast, and she could do little more than deflect it away from herself, losing her footing in the process. She staggered sideways, throwing out an arm to steady herself, and her elbow caught Jessica Stanley in the side of the head.

Jessica scowled and shoved Bella away, knocking her to the polished floor this time.

"What the frick, Nibbles?" she said, rubbing at her temple.

Bella pushed herself up to her feet. "Sorry, Jess. It was an accident." She was panting, out of breath.

"Whatever."

The game resumed, but Bella stepped off the court. She spoke quietly to Coach Clapp, and he dismissed her without much protest.

The rest of the students in the gymnasium barely seemed to notice. Jessica had a bit more venom to her game, and Angela at least looked guilty, but it appeared that incidents like these occurred all too regularly. No one made a fuss.

Bella trudged towards the locker rooms.

Alice watched her go, and a little knot of worry settled in her gut. When Coach Clapp was occupied elsewhere, she slipped away from her team and followed after Bella.

The locker room had a permanent, musty sort of scent to it that lingered beneath the synthetic tones of deodorant and cleaning agents. Two out of three of the long fluorescent lights were dead, leaving it dimly lit.

Alice paused in the entrance, cocking her head. She could hear Bella, towards the back of the room, on the other side of a row of lockers. She was muttering to herself, and Alice approached at a measured pace.

"I'm not listening to you," Bella was saying, repeating over, her voice scarcely above a whisper. "I'm not listening, so just shut up."

Alice inched forward, until she reached the corner. She peered around the row of lockers, and froze.

Bella was in the middle of changing, peeling her long-sleeved shirt over her head. She faced away from Alice, and there was no hiding how painfully thin she was, ribs and shoulder-blades protruding sharply.

But it was the scars that made the breath catch in Alice's throat.

Bella's back was an expanse of snow-white skin, but it had been marred by a discord of scars that notched and curved from the small of her back to the base of her neck. The most prominent were twin ridges of pink scar tissue that bisected her from shoulder to hip, breaking only at the valley of her spine.

She turned as she slipped her shirt off, reaching into her locker for a clean one. As she moved, Alice caught the silhouettes of more old wounds, raking across her ribs and abdomen. Another messy collection scored her collarbone, and across the hollow of her throat.

There was something else though. Dark little punctures that mottled her inner forearm. Track marks, unmistakable.

Bella stiffened, and the lean muscles in her back bunched together. She inhaled, exhaled, deep breaths that grew sharper and shorter until they were hissing through her teeth.

Her fist slammed into the locker door with a crash, and Alice flinched back.

"I said _shut up_," Bella shouted. Her eyes were squeezed shut, the tendons in her jaw straining. The skin of her knuckles had split, and blood welled to the surface.

Alice stopped breathing and tore her eyes away. She ducked back behind the row of lockers. She needed to move, to get away, and before she knew what she was doing she had blurred out of the gymnasium, too fast to be seen by any human.

She reached Edward's Volvo, realised she didn't have the keys, and with a cry of frustration she let herself slump. She sat on the bitumen, her back to the passenger door, her chin tucked to her knees.

There was nothing to do but wait out the storm within her mind.

* * *

Edward found her. He'd heard the panic in her thoughts, and slipped out of his Spanish class early. It had probably only been five minutes, but it felt much longer to Alice.

It had started raining, and they'd moved into the Volvo. Edward tuned the radio to a background volume, and the slow vocals blended into the patter of the rain. She told him everything she'd seen, working through it, beat by beat.

"The scars," Edward said, "they couldn't have been surgical?"

Alice shook her head, tracing the imperfections in the dashboard with her fingertips. "There was a car accident," she said, "when she was younger. But these … these where a butcher's work. I don't know how she could have even …"

Edward reached across the space between them and laid his hand upon her shoulder. She had no biological need to do so, but Alice still found it helped to take a steadying breath. Perhaps it soothed some near-dormant instinct within her.

Edward squeezed her shoulder once, then withdrew his hand.

The final bell rang, shrill and sharp, and it wasn't long before students started to trickle into the car park. She spotted Rosalie and Emmett among them, walking slow, pressed close, his arm around her shoulders, hers around his waist.

Alice looked away.

"You should take this to Carlisle," Edward said. "It might mean something more to him. Maybe he'll have a theory."

"Maybe," Alice said, then groaned. "I actually believed I had this under control. God, I am so stupid."

Edward smiled. "Yeah."

"Thanks," she mumbled, "your support means a lot."

"It's what I'm here for."

Alice rested her temple against the passenger window. She conjured the images in her mind, stitched together from her vision of Bella. The future she'd seen. The future she'd wanted. It seemed a distant thing now.

There was some solace in knowing that, if this was all a mistake, she'd be hurting herself more than anyone else. Vampiric attachments were difficult things to break, and they never broke clean. Despite herself, Alice had already begun forming those attachments to Bella.

She butted her head against the window.

_Stupid vampire, _she cursed herself.

Pain blossomed inside her skull. Knocked the wind from her, left her reeling, disorientated.

She hadn't hit her head _that_ hard.

"Alice?" Edward said, concern bleeding into his voice.

The pain ebbed, and Alice worked the door handle, stumbled out of the car. Edward climbed out of the driver's side, came around the hood to meet her. The pain slammed into her once again, and Edward was just in time to catch and steady her before it could bring her to her knees.

This time it brought with it a tidal wave of imagery and noise.

Dark eyes—Rending metal—Blood and glass—Screaming—Bones breaking, flesh rupturing—The suffocating scent of dying flowers.

It stopped.

Alice's whole body was shaking. Edward was still holding onto her. He was saying something, golden eyes wide with worry.

Everything happened simultaneously.

Alice turned her head, saw Bella, across the car park, standing by the back of her truck. She was staring back at Alice.

Their eyes locked.

A hatchback was backing blindly out of its spot, and tyres squealed as a van, coming too fast, swerved to avoid it. The driver tried to straighten it out, overcorrected, and instead sent the van fishtailing towards a row of parked cars.

Alice saw Bella about to be crushed between the van and her own truck.

She ran.

Faster than she knew she could.

Faster than Edward could have.

Not fast enough.

She felt it, like a blade of something colder than ice. The van made impact. Metal buckled. Windows popped, glass spraying across the bitumen.

Someone screamed.

Dying flowers. The sickly-sweet scent exploded across her senses.

She hadn't realised she'd stopped running until Edward grasped her arm and pulled her away. She tore her eyes from the horror show.

Edward's face was tight. She could tell he wasn't breathing.

_I need to help—Edward, I need to save her, let me go—EDWARD PLEASE—Please, please, please._

He shook his head, dragging her back to the Volvo. She looked around, but couldn't see Rose or Emmett anywhere. They must have run—the scent, they couldn't stay.

Edward pulled open the passenger door and sat her down sideways in the seat, legs dangling out of the car. He crouched down in front of her, taking her face in his hands, forcing her to focus on him.

"Alice, we need to go. Do you understand? We can't be here right now."

She nodded. Her head felt heavy.

"Okay, good. That's good. We'll go, and I'll call Em and Rose, and they'll meet as on the road, and we'll drive back to the house and we'll wait there."

"Is she okay?" Alice asked. Her voice sounded small to her own ears.

"Alice, please, we need to—"

"I need some help over here!"

Edward turned, and Alice looked past him, to the wreck. The blade of ice withdrew, and a dull, cold ache filled the space it left behind.

Bella climbed out stiffly over the bed of her truck. She was cradling her right arm to her chest. It was soaked in blood, staining her sleeve red, running in rivulets from her fingers.

People were already surging forward, crowding around the two vehicles as Bella hopped down onto the road, free from the wreck. She staggered around to the passenger side of the van and wrenched the door open.

Alice could see inside to the driver, and recognised Tyler Crowley, slumped over the steering wheel, stunned but conscious. He was bleeding from a dozen little lacerations. The driver side of the van was buckled in where it had impacted the corner of Bella's truck.

"He's hurt," Bella called out.

Faculty were on the scene now, and Mr Banner, the Biology teacher, was taking charge, directing his peers to keep the rest of the student body at a distance while Coach Clapp and the school nurse attended to Tyler.

Mr Mason was there, and he rushed over to Bella, taking her to one side.

"Here," Mr Mason was saying, "come away, Ms Swan. The ambulance has already been called. Are you hurt? Show me your arm."

She tucked her bloody hand inside the slash pocket of her jacket.

"I'm fine," she said, voice clipped. "It's fine. It's his blood, not mine."

"She's lying," Edward whispered. "I can smell it."

Alice glanced at her brother. She started to stand, but he guided her back down.

"No," Edward said. "We can't get involved."

"I need to go to her," Alice said. "You just said it yourself, she's lying—she's hurt."

They could hear the sirens now, and then see the lights, and the ambulance pulled in off the main highway. The paramedics went about their work with efficiency, assessing Tyler's condition and deciding it was safe to move him. He was alert enough to protest the stretcher as they transferred him into the back of the ambulance.

Another vehicle arrived. A police cruiser.

One of the paramedics had managed to coerce Bella into a seat in the back of the ambulance, next to Tyler's stretcher. He was working through the routine questions with her, testing her pupillary responses.

Chief Swan rushed over, leaving the door of his cruiser open.

He ignored the medic, focussing on Bella. "What happened?"

"Nothing. I'm good." She nodded her head back at the boy on the stretcher. "There was an accident, but I'm fine. We're fine. I don't know if my truck's fine …"

Chief Swan's expression hardened, and he finally turned to the paramedic. "Is the boy conscious?"

The paramedic frowned. "Whatever questions you need to ask him can wait, Chief. We're taking him, and your daughter, to the hospital."

"What? Come on, she's fine, she just said so."

"Her pulse is highly elevated, well over two-hundred beats a minute, and her pupils are blown. I think she's in shock." He turned to Bella. "We have to keep you under observation, at least for a little while."

Bella had started to stand, but she sighed and sat back down.

Chief Swan hesitated.

"It's alright, Charlie," Bella said.

"I imagine you'll be able to take her home this evening, Chief." The paramedic slammed the doors shut and turned to the crowd that still lingered around the crash. "Okay, clear a hole people!"

The teachers began corralling their students back out of the way, and the ambulance pulled out.

"We should call Carlisle," Edward said. "He's working today."

Alice felt too numb to respond, and just nodded. She swung her legs inside the car and slammed her door shut. The radio was still playing. Edward flicked it off.

"She could have been killed," Alice said.

He glanced at her once, then backed them out of their spot and pulled onto the highway.

"I wasn't fast enough."

"You were fast, Al," Edward told her. "I saw your vision too, as you were having it. I wasn't any faster to react."

Alice groaned, slammed her head back against the headrest. "Remind me to kill Tyler from Sosh."


	10. Occidentalis

**10\. Occidentalis**

Alice sat alone in the waiting room, drumming her fingers against her thigh in a rhythmless beat. It was all she could do to keep her thoughts from drifting, from taking her back to that moment. She could still feel it, a cold that gripped her stone heart, reminding her that she'd been too slow, too late.

Alice didn't have faith like her brother, she wasn't near masochistic enough for that. If there was a god, Alice was under no illusions that when death finally caught up to her, she'd be going to hell. All the same, she found herself offering a quiet prayer of thanks. She wasn't sure if she did it right—if she had ever been taught how, she didn't remember, but she thought the intent was what mattered.

She lifted her head, and glanced around the stark waiting room. Really, it was more a collection of mismatched chairs, shoved into a corner, and a coffee table littered with magazines that dated back to the early 90s.

A town as small as this one, she imagined that this was what counted for a busy day at Forks Hospital, and yet the building felt almost asleep. The gurgle of the water cooler, the lazy scratching of pencil on paper from the administration desk, the occasional quick, clinical exchange of words. It all came through muted, somehow.

Even the potted plants seemed tired—sad, drooping things that did little to liven up the washed-out décor.

It hadn't taken much effort to get Edward to drop her off here—he'd known he wouldn't be able to convince her against it. He'd called ahead to let Carlisle know about the accident, suggesting he should take the opportunity to examine Bella himself.

Tyler's parents had shown up shortly after Alice herself had arrived, but they'd been hurried in to see their son. Alice didn't bother the nursing staff asking after Bella.

She'd be okay, Alice knew it. She'd be under Carlisle's care.

And yet, as the hours passed, Alice felt every minute, and the ache in her chest remained.

One of the nurses had brought her a coffee from the break room, and Alice had held onto the styrofoam cup until it grew cold between her palms. It now sat abandoned and untouched.

She was flicking through an outdated fashion magazine when she heard a door open and Carlisle's voice spill out into the hall.

"—and remember, if you experience any dizziness, if you begin feeling faint or lightheaded at all, just pick up the phone."

"Sure thing, Doc."

At the sound of Bella's voice, the magazine dropped from Alice's hands and she found herself standing.

"I'm still worried about that heart rate of yours," Carlisle said. "It's far too high for someone your age. You're sure there's no history of heart disease in your family? Arrythmia?"

They rounded the corner into the reception area, Carlisle looking better than any TV doctor with his perfect, blonde hair and clean white coat. Bella slunk along beside him, chin down and hands stuffed into her jacket pockets.

Her sleeve was still bloodstained, and as a precaution, Alice stopped breathing. The jacket was Bella's favourite, Alice thought, the suede one with the wool lining.

"I don't know," Bella told Carlisle. "Alzheimer's took my grandmother, and my grandfather … cancer, I think, but I don't remember what kind."

"And that's your father's side, correct?" Carlisle said. "What about your mother's?"

Bella stiffened beside him.

"I wouldn't know," she said. "I never met her folks. I don't think they really approved of … "

"Well, it's probably nothing," Carlisle said, ignoring her lapse and clasping his hands in front of him, "but I still think it would be worth coming in for another check-up, regardless."

Alice cleared her throat, announcing her presence.

Bella looked up, something unreadable passing over her face.

"Hi," said Alice.

"Hey."

"Okay," Carlisle said, after a pause. "You're good from here, Bella? Your father's picking you up?"

"Yup," Bella said. "I texted, he's on his way."

Carlisle hesitated, hand hovering like he might pat her shoulder, but it dropped back to his side. He gave Alice a nod, and left the way they'd come.

"So," Bella said, when he was gone, "you been waiting this whole time?"

"Didn't you hear?" Alice said. "My friend was in an accident. I had to make sure she was okay."

Bella rolled her eyes, and walked towards the exit.

Alice waved goodbye to the receptionist, then followed after her. As the automatic doors slid open, Bella hurried outside.

The rain had picked up, and Alice flipped her hood up, but Bella didn't seem to mind it. She raised her face to the sky and breathed in. It looked like a weight had lifted from her shoulders as soon as they'd stepped outside.

"You don't like hospitals," Alice stated.

Bella shook her head, eyes closed against the gentle rain. After a few moments she stepped back under the awning at the entrance.

"I hate them," she said. "Can barely breathe in there. The smell. Like they're trying to cover up all the death with ammonia and air freshener."

Alice didn't press the subject. She was happy just to be standing there next to the girl, seeing her, cementing the fact that she really was alive and unscathed.

"I'm not a fan of doctors either," Bella said, "but I like him. Your dad. Or, I guess, your guardian? I don't know. Your family's weird. Oh—sorry, I didn't mean that, like … "

Alice chuckled. "It's okay, we are pretty strange."

"Are any of you actually related?"

Every time the Cullens relocated, they prepared new identities and a new story, just different enough so as not to raise any flags, but still similar enough to be comfortable. Alice new she should just stick to the plan, but something made her hesitate.

"No," she said, finally, "not really. Edward has been with Carlisle the longest. They're father and son in every way that counts."

The rain was lashing down now, and it poured over the eave of the hospital's entrance, falling like a curtain between them and the outside world.

Bella held her wrist under the flow, letting the cold water run over her bloodstained sleeve. The water turned pink, and Alice flinched. She was out of air, and would need another breath if she meant to continue this conversation. She braced herself for the scent to hit.

The cloying sweetness filled her mind and set alight her nerve endings. Yet, it wasn't as potent this time, and she was able to power through the initial reaction.

"And you?" Bella said, unaware of her struggle. "How long have you been with them?"

"I was the last," Alice said. "I was … on my own, for a long time. I always knew they were out there, though. Waiting for me. Finding them—it was the best thing that ever happened to me."

Bella drew her hand back from under the rainwater. She stared at it, turning it over, clenching and unclenching her fingers.

Finally, she said, "You seem to know a lot of things."

Alice tried to ignore the cold, clawing in her chest. "What do you mean?"

Bella looked up, and Alice froze. Dark eyes, transfixing her.

"The way you were looking at me," Bella said, "before the accident. Crowley hadn't even made the turn yet, but you were looking at me like …"

Alice tried to tear her eyes away, but was unable. "I, uh, I don't know what you mean."

"You told me you were good at predicting people," Bella said. "Did you predict that? Did you know he was going to hit me?"

The little claws of ice had wrapped around her ribs now.

"He didn't hit you," she said.

"No," Bella said. "I guess he didn't."

A car's horn sounded, and the distraction was enough for Alice to look away. She saw the Chief's cruiser, pulled up on the road.

"I have to go," Bella said. "See you at school."

She walked out into the rain, and Alice watched her until she'd climbed into the cruiser and they'd driven away.

Alice hugged herself. _Rosalie's going to kill me._

* * *

"I'm going to kill you," Rosalie all but spat the words through her teeth.

Emmett had a hand resting on his wife's shoulder, keeping her seated on the couch beside him. "Easy, Babe"

They were waiting for Carlisle to return from work. Esme was avoiding the tension, distracting herself through cleaning. She glided from room to room, dusting immaculate furniture, sweeping spotless floors.

Edward sat at his piano, eyes closed and fingers moving lazily over the keys without compressing them. Hearing the music in his mind.

Alice paced the length of the floor-to-ceiling windows that made up the Southern wall of the living room, and stared out into the darkening world. The light lost didn't affect her vision, simply shifted the tones. The greens and browns blending together, the overcast sky deepening to a purple-grey.

The waters of the Calawah looked black. The river bordered the edge of their property, keeping the wilds of the Olympic National Park at bay.

"She knows, Alice," Rose said. "She knows."

"Don't be melodramatic." Edward didn't pause in his composing, his eyes still closed. "She _suspects_ that Alice has abilities beyond the natural. She already had her suspicions before. This isn't much worse."

"Noticing her eyes changing is one thing," Rose said. "Easily explained away. But believing Alice is psychic?"

"Who's she going to tell?" Emmett asked. "Who'd believe her?"

"Her father's the Police Chief," Rose said, "but that's beside the point. We have _never_ been exposed like this. For God's sake, Alice sprinted across that parking lot in clear view of dozens of humans!"

"Nobody saw," Edward said. "Everyone was focussed on the accident."

Alice stopped pacing. "That's not the point."

Edward's fingers stilled. He opened one eye.

"Wait—you're on my side?" Rose said.

"Bella knows too much," Alice said, "and it's my fault."

Her siblings stared at her. Esme stepped out from the kitchen, her mouth pressed into a thin line.

Alice took a breath. "I've risked our lives here, by getting involved with this girl, and … and I think we should do what we always do when the risk of exposure becomes too great."

Emmett was frowning. "Wait, you're saying—"

"She's saying we should leave," Esme said, and Alice couldn't bring herself to meet her eyes. She didn't want to know what she'd see there.

"No way." Rosalie shrugged her husband's hand off and leapt up from the couch. Alice shrunk back as her sister advanced on her.

"Rose, you don't understand—" she started, but Rose cut her off.

"We've already discussed this, Alice. Remember? Because you made a promise. If it came down to it, _you_ would deal with the girl yourself. It was your responsibility."

"I know!"

The sudden outburst made Rosalie's jaw snap shut. She took a step back.

Edward had moved from the piano to stand beside Esme, and Alice sought him out with her mind.

_Please._

He held her gaze for a moment that felt longer than it was, and then nodded once. "I'm with Alice," he said. "We should leave."

Rosalie huffed. "Typical."

"I know I made a promise, Rosalie," Alice said. "But I can't keep it. I never could. I'm sorry."

Rose looked back at her, and Alice could see the frustration and the hurt, the anger, and the love behind it.

"Why?" was all Rosalie said, and it hung in the air between them.

Emmett sighed and drew a hand across his face. He stood up from the couch and came forward, taking Rosalie's hand into his own. She looked up at him.

"Babe, I know how hard it is on you, moving around all the time, never staying still." He glanced around the room at the others, and Alice suddenly felt like she was intruding on something private.

He looked back at Rosalie. "Maybe … maybe we could take some time. Find a place. Do our own thing for a while."

No one, it seemed, had anything more to say. Edward gave Esme's shoulder a squeeze, and returned to his piano. Rosalie departed to the garage, undoubtedly to work out her frustrations on one of her cars. Emmett shot Alice an apologetic smile, and followed after his wife.

Alice went back to pacing. Back and forth, as if on tracks, eyes fixed on the Calawah, knowing that only a half-dozen miles down that river, a skip and a hop through the forest, and she could be at Bella's house. It wouldn't take her fifteen minutes to run the distance.

She could climb the old tree in the backyard, knock on her window. She could tell her everything. Explain everything. Why she wanted to stay. Why she needed to leave.

But Alice didn't run to her. Her feet continued to carry her, back and forth, the length of the room, and she stayed that way until the sound of tyres on gravel broke through her tangled thoughts. Carlisle's car, pulling into the driveway.

She joined Esme in the foyer. Rosalie and Emmett appeared from the side door to the garage, and Edward closed the lid of his piano.

Carlisle paused when he entered, seeing the family assembled and waiting.

Esme moved to him, kissing his cheek. "Welcome home, dear."

"Ah—yes," he said, "quite the welcome."

"Yeah-yeah," Rosalie said, "nice day at work and all that. So, what's the verdict?"

"Verdict?"

"The Swan girl," Edward said. "You examined her, didn't you?"

"I did, yes." Carlisle shrugged off his coat, hanging it on the stand by the door. "Nothing invasive, of course, but I spoke with her for some time. I think I even gained some insight."

"And did it lead you to any theories?" Edward asked.

Carlisle smiled. "No, not a one. It's fascinating really—if it weren't for all the evidence Alice has gathered, I'd be sure the girl was human. The accident today, you're absolutely positive that it was her blood?"

"Positive," Edward said. "And from the amount of bleeding, her injuries should have been significant."

"Remarkable. There was no sign of damage by the time she'd reached the hospital. Rapid cellular regeneration? Maybe more advanced than our own."

When Carlisle and Edward started talking shop, there was little that could derail them, but something stuck out to Alice. A puzzle piece that didn't fit.

"That can't be right," she said, and all eyes shifted to her. "The scars."

"Scars?" Carlisle asked.

"Alice saw them," Edward explained. "Apparently, Bella has extensive scarring. There was a car crash, when she was younger, that could explain it."

Carlisle frowned. "There's no record of any accident in her medical history."

"You looked through her files?" Alice couldn't help that it came out like an accusation.

"I am her doctor," Carlisle said, but frowned. "I wouldn't normally break confidentiality this way, but in this case I believed an exception should be made."

Alice chewed her lip. It was getting to be about that time, she supposed. She had stalwartly protected Bella's privacy up until this point, but she needed to give her family some leeway.

"Regardless," Edward said, "Alice doesn't seem to think these scars were the result of anything … accidental."

"There were other marks too," Alice said, softly. " … track marks."

Rosalie snorted. "You sure know how to pick 'em, Sis."

"Intravenous drug use," Carlisle said, ignoring Rosalie. "I'll admit, I suspected, after meeting her—I know the signs. However, I can only assume the reasons for that are all too human ..." He trailed off, like he'd suddenly lost his train of thought, or found a new one.

"But it proves that she _can_ be injured," Edward said, and threw up his hands. "None of this is adding up."

Esme was saying something, but her assuaging words were lost on Alice, who was focussed on Carlisle. He was staring off into space.

She stepped towards him, head canted. "Carlisle?"

He stirred, looking up suddenly. "Hmm?"

Edward frowned, he'd noticed too. "Carlisle, why are you—"

"Nothing," he said, but his face was tight. "Just a thought. It's unimportant. I have other news, something pressing."

Edward's brow was furrowed, and he shared a glance with Alice, but didn't say anything more.

Esme took Carlisle's hand. "What's going on, dear?"

"There was a murder in Port Angeles last week," he said. "I heard about it at the time, and didn't think anything of it. But this morning, the bodies of two hikers were found in the national park. I accessed the medical reports, and all three cases are the same. Massive trauma. Exsanguinated."

Alice saw the tension that fell over the family. Esme flinched, shifted closer to Carlisle. Rosalie stepped back into Emmett's embrace, his arms wrapping around her out of instinct.

"A nomad," Edward said, giving voice to what they all knew. "Maybe more than one. And they're moving west, through the county."

"That settles it then," Rose said. "Sorry, Al."

"What's this?" Carlisle asked. "I believe I've missed something."

Esme sighed. "There was some … discussion, before you got home. The Swan girl has apparently discovered that our Alice is psychic."

"Alice wants to turn tail," Rose said. "Flee the town."

"It's the safest course," Alice said. "For everyone."

Rosalie extricated herself from Emmett's arms and stepped forward. "There wouldn't have been any danger, or threat of exposure, if you'd been able to keep it in your pants in the first place. I swear, what is it with you and damaged goods?"

Alice matched her, stepping forward slowly. "You need to watch your mouth, Rose."

Rosalie smiled, and glanced around the room. "Come on, I can't be alone here."

Edward shook his head. "Rosalie … please."

Rose sighed, and looked back to Alice. "I guess I'm just not surprised that the first replacement you found was another scarred-up addict."

Alice's hands curled into fists, and she had already started moving forward before the last words had dripped from Rosalie's lips.

Rose growled, dropped into a defensive posture, and Emmett lunged forward to back her up, muscles bulging across his arms and neck.

"Enough!"

They all stopped.

Carlisle stepped up onto the piano's raised platform, placing himself between the siblings. Alice had never even heard him raise his voice before, yet his shout still rang in her ears.

"That's enough," he said again, and his composure had returned. "If you're truly intent on tearing each other apart, there's nothing I can do to stop you. But at least give us the courtesy of doing so outside, as to avoid destroying our foyer."

"Thank you, dear," Esme said. Her voice was even, but she held onto the banister at the base of the stairs as if it were the only thing keeping her up.

Alice felt a pang of guilt, and straightened up. Esme was too good for this, and Alice wished she were a better person, if only to deserve having her in her life.

Carlisle smoothed out his tie, and spoke, "The simple truth is … we can't leave. Not yet, at least. Not until this nomad has moved on and things have had time to settle."

"How long?" Alice asked.

"A month, perhaps," Carlisle said. "We can … re-evaluate, as the situation develops."

"And the Swan girl?" Rosalie said. "What's to be done about her in the mean time?"

"I'll leave that to Alice's discretion."

Rosalie's jaw tightened. "Alice is hardly impartial."

"I know," Carlisle said. He looked around the room, eyes passing over each face in turn. "You're looking to me for answers, but I don't have any. I am not the patriarch of this coven. We're a family—our bonds of family are what have kept us together. It's impossible for any one of us to be impartial."

He stepped down, off the platform, and lay a hand on Alice's shoulder.

"I trust you," he said, then looked back at the others. "And that's enough for me."


	11. Damn the Rest

**11\. Damn the Rest**

Alice had gone out driving that night.

The car was a Porsche 912—a gift from Rosalie in the late sixties. She and Edward had done some work to it over the years, but Alice hadn't let them change too much.

It was still in its classic, polo-red, with the original upholstery. The smell of vinyl and leather was comforting, transporting her back in time.

She remembered road-tripping with Jasper, from Ohio to Alaska. They normally liked to drive fast—all vampires did—but that time, for some reason, they'd kept it under seventy the whole way and stayed off the highways.

Tonight, she'd taken the one-oh-one out of Clallam County, and pushed the Porsche to its limits. Thanks to her powers, she never had to worry about getting a ticket.

She drove until she hit the coast, the Pacific stretching cold and dark to the horizon, and only then did she slow, until the crash of the waves rose above the sound of her engine.

She'd always loved the sea—or at least, she liked to think so. When she'd first woken up, it had been in a rotting cabin, hidden away deep within the pine forests of Mississippi. She had no memories of her human life, who she was or what had led her to that place. She didn't even know _what_ she was. If it weren't for her visions, the future she knew she could have with the Cullens, she would have succumbed to her thirst and savagery.

Over a century of living, she'd tried not to keep track of the amount of times she'd 'slipped up'. But a vampire's near perfect recall was as much a curse as a gift, and her memories of those first few years were bathed in red.

In the end, she had tried to remove herself from temptation by throwing herself into the Gulf of Mexico. She'd stayed out, hundreds of miles from the coast, and swam up through the North Atlantic.

It hadn't been a perfect solution. She was sure there were still a few old fishermen out there, sitting in coastal bars and telling tales of the 'ghost ships' she had left behind. Eventually, her control had grown strong enough that she'd been able to return to the mainland. She'd found Jasper, and they'd done the best they could, trying to fight their own natures. They'd leaned on each other, learned from each other, while using her visions as a guide to track down the Cullens.

The highway peeled away from the coast, and Alice's thoughts returned to the present. She put the Porsche back into high gear, and reached Aberdeen in under an hour.

A part of her told her to keep driving, and a part of her told her to turn back, and she wasn't sure if they weren't the same voice.

* * *

Alice arrived at the school with only fifteen minutes left of fourth period. She waited out another ten of those sitting in her car.

Finally, she grabbed her bag from the backseat and walked into the front office to give Mrs Cope an excuse for her absence. She'd already texted Esme, letting her know she'd probably be receiving a call from the school, and would have to back her story up.

When the lunch bell rang, Alice joined the tail end of the line of students heading into the cafeteria. By the time she'd paid for her food, her siblings were already seated, and she moved to join them.

Out of habit she glanced towards the other corner of the room.

Bella watched her, from her usual table—_their_ usual table—her chin propped up in her palm. Her face held no expression, but there was an intensity in her eyes that forced Alice to look away.

She dumped her tray down and took her seat next to Edward.

"Not sitting with your girlfriend today?" Rosalie said.

Alice glared. "Leave it alone, Rose."

"Uh-oh. Over so soon?"

A growl climbed Alice's throat, but she clamped down on it.

Rosalie sniggered, and leaned back in her chair, having had her fill of tormenting her for the day.

Alice turned to toying with her food, feeling Bella's eyes on her all through lunch.

It was almost a relief when the bell rang, and Alice could escape to Social Studies. Even Mr Jefferson's wandering eyes didn't bother her today. His gaze was far easier to deal with than Bella's.

Tyler wasn't in class. Undoubtedly at home, recovering. His injuries had ended up being mostly superficial. A lot of blood, a lot of drama, but a few stitches later and he was going to be okay.

Alice dumped her books into her locker after Sosh, and started towards Gym with lead weights around her ankles.

"So," Edward said, slipping into step beside her. "This is your plan, is it? Systematically ignore her, and mope about until we can all skip town."

"I don't mope," Alice said. "You mope. I repine. It's more dignified."

"You see the flaw in this plan?" Edward said, ignoring her. "It won't end after we leave. You won't stop being miserable. We vampires can be truly pathetic creatures."

"I'll get over it," Alice said.

She'd done it before, after all. Though already, she was realising this obsession with Bella was turning out to be a completely different animal from what she'd shared with Jasper. It didn't seem right or fair to compare them.

"Eventually," Edward said. "Maybe."

Alice stopped, and he did too, turning to face her.

"What's your point, Edward?" Alice said. "You agreed with me last night. We can't stay."

He sighed. "They're both bad choices, right? You might live to regret either. But, if we stay, maybe … maybe you won't be so miserable in the meanwhile."

"So, what?" Alice said. "Just do whatever makes me happiest and damn the rest?"

He smiled thinly. "We're damned anyway, Alice. You may as well enjoy yourself."

He started walking again, and after a beat she jogged to catch up. He didn't make to speak any more. Edward had said his piece, and would leave it at that. But there was something else. Something that had been gnawing at Alice.

"Last night," she said. "With Carlisle … there was a moment."

Edward glanced down at her, then looked back ahead, eyes fixed. "Yes," he said. "There was."

"You think he knows something? Something about Bella?"

Edward shook his head. "I don't know. He was keeping me out. He hasn't done that before."

She could hear in his voice just how uncomfortable that made him. Carlisle never hid things.

They fell back into silence, and Alice knew that they were both mulling over the implications of that. As they neared the gymnasium, he bumped his shoulder against hers, and headed off towards his own class.

Alice's step faltered as she approached the doors. She shoved all thoughts of Carlisle to a corner of her mind, and she steeled herself before pushing forward into the gym.

She knew she could do it. She wasn't in this too deep yet—not yet. She could fight her nature, and have the strength to stay away.

But didn't she owe it to herself to see where this went? There was some appeal to Edward's philosophy. There was always going to be risk. For Alice, and her family, or Bella.

Was it even her choice to make alone? Carlisle had said he'd trust any decision she came to. And Rosalie would forgive her, eventually. Family mattered more to Rose than anything else, and in the end, they would always be sisters.

But wasn't Alice abusing their trust?

And if they did stay, the truth would out eventually. She wouldn't be able to hide what she was from Bella, not forever. Whether Alice told her or not, Bella was more than smart enough to form her own conclusions. If she knew even a fraction of the things Alice had done, what would she think of her? Would she really want her to stay?

The thought of that hurt more than Alice was comfortable reflecting on.

Fortunately, Bella was still down the other side of the gym for volleyball, and Alice was able to distract herself by predicting the outcomes of each play as the ball passed back and forth over the net. Each player's rapid decision making created a flutter of possible futures, and while it wasn't thrilling entertainment, by any means, it was a simple task to absorb herself in.

After Coach Clapp called an end to class, Alice took her time in the locker room, changing out of her gym attire. The blouse she wore today was one of the few items of clothing she kept in regular rotation. Elegant, white cotton. It had been designed for her personally, by an old friend whose work had, regrettably, remained uncelebrated.

She toyed with the hem as she ambled through the emptying school. She thought about all the people she'd known over the years, and left behind. She wondered, which of them were still alive today, and how many still remembered her.

The Volvo, and her siblings, were already gone when she reached the car park, and as she walked over to her own car, she saw something that made her freeze, mid-step.

Despite herself, she felt a slow grin creeping over her face.

Bella was sitting on the hood of the Porsche. When she spotted Alice, she leaned back onto her elbows, posing like a pin-up girl.

Alice couldn't hold her grin back, and Bella chuckled and hopped down.

Alice shook her head, still smiling. "Hi."

"Hey," Bella said, then pointed with her thumb, back over her shoulder at the Porsche. "You've been driving around in your brother's Volvo this whole time?"

Alice came forward, noticing now just how many people were staring as they passed by. Without question, the Porsche stood out among the hand-me-downs and beaters, but she was sure that Bella's little display hadn't hurt in garnering attention.

Alice thought about feeding her some excuse, but then realised she may as well not bother.

"We usually don't like to draw too much attention."

Bella chewed her lip for a moment, taking that in, then seemed to come to some decision.

"I'm taking you up on your offer," she said.

Alice quirked her head. "Sorry?"

"My truck's still out of commission," Bella explained, "and you said, if I ever needed a ride …"

Alice hesitated, but she already knew she wouldn't be able to turn her away.

"Okay," she said. "Hop in."

She walked around to the driver's side and unlocked the doors. Bella climbed in, looking around as she buckled her seatbelt.

"Of course, it even smells nice."

All Alice could smell now was her. Her shampoo, and the traces of cigarette smoke that clung to her clothes. It was all undertone, overshadowed by her unique, floral perfume.

It made electricity crawl beneath Alice's skin. Made her muscles itch, like she wanted to run or dance or just _move_.

Alice turned the engine over, and the Porsche lunged forward. The car responded to her commands like it was another part of her, and she navigated through the lot and out onto the highway.

Bella was pressed back into her seat. Her eyes were wide, but she was smiling. "You know my dad's a cop, right?"

Alice laughed, and eased back a little.

The rain, which had given them some small respite today, returned with force. Alice flicked the headlights and the windshield wipers on. For a while, the patter of the rain, and the soft _thwomp_ of the blades going back and forth, were the only sounds within the car.

Bella lay her temple against the window, tracing the paths of raindrops with her fingertip as they ran down the other side of the glass.

"You know, I've never been further than Portland? I was born here in Forks. Lived here all my life."

Alice watched her out of the corner of her eye. "You never wanted to leave?"

"Every day," Bella said. "When I'm sitting in class, well, I'm not thinking about class, 'cos that would never happen. But I think about going somewhere. Somewhere warm … like Arizona. Maybe Texas. It doesn't really matter."

Alice hummed. "Texas is nice. Beautiful, in a … _brown_ sort of way."

"I like brown," Bella said. "There's only green here. It's suffocating. So, you've been to Texas. Where else?"

Alice's fingers flexed around the steering wheel.

"Lots of places," she said, after a pause. "But I was usually just passing through. I guess I'm from Mississippi, originally. Spent some time in Massachusetts, Montana, Alaska. Even British Colombia, for a while. When I was … adopted, by the Cullens, they were living in Oregon."

"I can't imagine a life like that," Bella said.

The silence returned, and Alice thought about putting something on. Edward had installed a modern sound system in the car a few years ago, but music had never held Alice the way it did him, and she didn't think she even had any CDs in the glove compartment.

Bella turned her head towards her. "We should probably talk about things."

Alice wished they could go back to the silence.

"We don't have to," she said, keeping her gaze fixed on the road ahead.

"No?" Bella said.

Alice sighed. "It just … might be better if we don't."

"Right," Bella said. "Does this have anything to do with why you were avoiding me today?"

Alice didn't know what to say. They pulled up to one of the only sets of traffic lights in town, and she glanced over at Bella, struggling to keep her face impassive.

"Okay," she said, then took a breath. "Let's talk. How did you know that I was … different?"

"Lots of small things," Bella said. "One big thing. It wasn't all that difficult. Not when you know to look."

"How did you know to look?"

"Because _you_ knew to look," Bella said. "Knew to look at me."

Alice felt a strange sort of desperation building in her chest. She stared at the girl, sitting there in her car. Such a delicate thing—flower petals and eyelet lace.

Alice looked. She let herself look.

She was expecting it, but the force of it still knocked the breath out of her. Her knuckles turned white against the steering wheel, and Bella's future crashed against her mind, cold and black as Pacific waters. It reeled around itself, tearing and fragmenting, enveloping Alice within the maelstrom. Ribbons of sound and light whipped around her, and she tried to reach out to catch them, but they slipped away.

Then she found something solid. A weight in her arms, Bella's weight—A spray of blood, arcing through the air—She's on her knees, holding her, feeling the warmth of her—A building burning, beams cracking and collapsing, embers rising into a night sky—Bella's looking up at her, with dark eyes, and a small, half-smile.

Alice felt herself sinking deeper.

"Hey," Bella said.

Alice's eyes refocused. A driver behind lay on his horn.

Bella nodded towards the road. "Light's green, dude."

Alice shook off the vision, urged the Porsche forward.

"Where did you go just now?" Bella asked.

"I, uh—" She stopped herself, shook her head.

Bella frowned. "What is it?"

"I can't _see_ you," Alice said, and the words hung between them and she couldn't take them back, so she pressed on. "That's what drew me to you in the first place. It's why I knew to look. I can't see your future."

Bella was quite for a long time. "So, you're really psychic?"

Alice shrugged. "Pretty much."

"Huh."

They turned off the highway, drove on, through residential areas and towards the edge of town. The road curved gently and the houses grew further apart. Alice pulled over, in front of a small, two-story with white sidings.

Bella raised an eyebrow. "I didn't give you directions."

Alice grimaced.

"Right," Bella said.

She didn't make any move to get out of the car, and Alice shifted the topic.

"How soon until your truck is roadworthy again?"

"I'm not sure," Bella said. "Taking it down to my mechanic tomorrow."

"Oh, you don't have to," Alice said. "My brother's good with that stuff, he could take a look at it for you."

"Nah, I'm alright," Bella said. "Thanks, but my guy's sort of a family friend, he'd take it personal if I didn't bring it to him."

Alice nodded.

Bella opened her door to climb out, then hesitated. She fished her cell phone out of the back pocket of her jeans and tossed it over to Alice, who caught it.

"Give me your number."

Alice smiled, and flipped the phone open. It was clearly more than a few years old, the numbers all but worn off the keypad, and a series of cracks running across the screen.

Alice put in her number, hit dial, and her own phone buzzed in her pocket.

"It works," Alice said, hanging up and handing it back to Bella.

Bella climbed out of the car, and went to slam the door, but hesitated again.

"Any chance you know who's going to win the game tonight?"

Alice laughed. "That's not exactly how it works. Baseball?"

"Mariners."

"Sox," Alice said, pointing a thumb at herself.

Bella shook her head. "Figures."

She slammed the passenger door, and Alice watched her cross the lawn. Bella didn't glance back, but she hesitated, for just a moment, before opening the door and disappearing inside.


End file.
